Honda Motorcycles and Scooters, a Japanese two-wheeler manufacturer, plans to debut an electric motor scooter in FY25, a top company official told reporters on Tuesday on the sidelines of the 64th SIAM conference.
Yogesh Mathur, Director of Marketing and Sales at Honda Motorcycles and Scooters, sees the electric vehicle industry as a promising possibility. “Till last year, it (EV) was clocking closer around 5% now it has reached almost 8% so some contribution of EV is increasing. And what we understand is that by 2030 there will be a major chunk shifting towards EV. And we also have announced that by 2030 our lineup also will be 1/3 at least, coming up only from EV,” said Mathur.
Mathur claims that one-third of the industry is made up of the 100–110 cc category. Even though the Honda Shine 100 was introduced last year, Honda has been absent from this category. The new electric two-wheeler will most likely be introduced to fill the vacancy in this market. Mathur stated that the corporation is not late in introducing EVs since it is largely attempting to address its difficulties.
“We came up with Honda Shine 100, which is now giving very good results in terms of overall growth numbers. So it (business decision) was primarily in terms of,prioritizing our own, challenges and basis on that only Honda Shine was first (in 100-110 cc segment) and then going forward, we have other exciting products also coming over,” said Mathur.
Meanwhile, while the sector expected subsidies and incentives for electrification, Mathur believes that receiving subsidies will have little impact. “So it (incentives) doesn’t make any difference, because our product strategy and positioning will be based on the current condition of whatever is available in the market,” said Mathur.
According to Mathur, the two-wheeler sector is now developing at a rate of 16%.“The two-wheeler industry this year is was expected to grow somewhere close down 10 to 12% but till now, it is already growing by 16%. And especially if we bifurcate that into scooters and motorcycles, scooters growth is higher than the motorcycle growth. So scooter growth is roughly around 24% and motorcycle is around 13% averaging around 16%. So this clearly indicates which area is growing. So it’s primarily an urban area which is showing a positive trend as compared to the rural area,” highlighted Mathur. Rural market accounts for 30-35% of the overall two-wheeler sales, according to Mathur.
Urban market driving growth
Scooters account for 60% of Honda Motorcycles sales, with motorcycles accounting for the remaining 40%. Honda Activa is the best-selling model in the 125cc scooter class, while Honda Shine 125 and Honda Glamour are the best-selling motorbikes in the 125cc category. According to Mathur, the 125 cc market, which includes both motorcycles and scooters, is rising faster than other categories.
“Currently, the entry level motorcycle is growing by around 2% under 100-110 cc. But the major growth is coming up in 125 CC, which is growing by 55% and above 150 to 180 is declining by around -9% till now. So one is the entry level is shifting towards 125 cc. So the entry level is shifting towards 125 CC, and then the customer always upgrade to a higher category to above 150 cc,” said Mathur.
Regarding the exploration of alternative technologies, Mathur stated that the country’s two-wheeler market“too vesatile to accomodate all types of technologies.” “There is a room for EV. There is room for flex fuel. There is room for such kind of alternate products coming in. And it will continue to grow like that, because the kind of overall size and scale of the industry is so big that everybody can have a harmonious relationship and harmonious existence in this particular category,” said Mathur.