Honda Motorcycles & Scooters India, which will open bookings for its newly launched electric scooters Activa E and QC1 on January 1, is aiming to produce one lakh electric scooters in the initial year.
“First year, we are planning to manufacture around 1 lakh units of both the electric vehicle models,” Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) President, CEO and MD Tsutsumu Otani told reporters on Wednesday.
Honda can manufacture around 6.2 million two-wheelers annually in India across its four factories - Manesar (Haryana), Alwar (Rajasthan), Narsapura (Karnataka) and Vithalapur (Gujarat).
Activa E and QC1 will be manufactured at the Narsapura factory. Prices of both models will be revealed in January and the company plans to start deliveries of the two models in February.
When asked about localisation, Yogesh Mathur, director of sales and marketing at HMSI, said: “We have localized around 99% of it with batteries being procured from local supplier here.”
Activa E, built on 6kw direct drive motor, comes with a range of around 102 km and a maximum speed of 80 km per hour. The model comes with batteries that be swapped at its battery swapping stations - Power Pack Exchanger.
Honda Power Pack Exchanger is already live in Bengaluru and Delhi, and will soon be launched in Mumbai. There are around 88 stations in Bangalore and plans to have around 500 such stations by March 2026, the company officials said. These swapping stations will be accessible to vehicles from other OEMs as well.
QC1, which comes with fixed batteries, is built on a compact in-wheel 1.8 kw motor and has 1.5 kWh lithium-ion BP cell chemistry. It has a range of around 80 km and top speed of 50 km per hour
The maker of the popular Activa scooter and Shine motorcycle is the second-largest two-wheeler manufacturer in India. In 2023-24, it sold 45.30 lakh scooters and motorcycles in India, while it exported 3.63 lakh units.
In the initial stage, the automaker will adopt a phased rollout for its electric scooters in India and eyes to cover 50% of the electric two-wheeler market in the first year. The management noted it currently has no plans to export electric vehicles from India.
Honda plans to start selling Activa E in three metros - Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai initially. The automaker currently 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 a separate network for electric vehicles,” Mathur said. ENDS