Honda Motorcycle & Scooter to adopt phased rollout of E2Ws, eyes to cover 50% market in first year

Honda Motorcycles & Scooters India, which launched its first set of electric two-wheelers in India on Wednesday, will adopt a phased roll out of its electric scooters across the country, rather than an aggressive country wide roll out in the initial stage. The automaker aims to cover 50% of the domestic electric two-wheeler market within one year.

"EVs will be available in select cities as part of our phased roll out program. We will launch concept stores in select cities for enhanced customer experience," said Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India President, CEO and MD Tsutsumu Otani told reporters while launching Activa E and QC1.

Honda plans to start selling Activa E in three metros - Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai initially. The automaker current has over 6,000 sales and service touchpoints across the country including Red Wing dealerships. 

"The sales of electric vehicles will be through our existing Red Wing dealerships. They will be having a dedicated corner for electric vehicles. We do not plan to have separate network for electric vehicles...The main dealers, which are 1,000 plus, will be initially upgraded to take care of electric vehicles sales and service," said Yogesh Mathur, director of sales and marketing at Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India.

The Japanese two-wheeler maker was the only major traditional two-wheeler maker in India that has not entered the burgeoning electric vehicle market. Its major competitor Hero MotoCorp, which started selling electric two-wheelers under the Vida brand in 2023, also took a phased expansion strategy to roll out the electric vehicle. 

The automaker has four plants in India - Manesar (Haryana), Alwar (Rajasthan), Narsapura (Karnataka) and Vithalapur (Gujarat) with a total annual capacity of around 6 million units. Electric scooters will be manufactured at the Karnataka plant. The company plans to produce around 1 lakh electric scooters in the first year.