Honda begins electric scooter development for India

- The e-scooters are being developed in Japan

- Expected to run 100kms in single charge

- No timeline for the official launch

Honda has started working on new electric scooters for the Indian market. This development was confirmed by Minoru Kato, president, HMSI.

These electric scooters are being developed by the R&D centre in Japan and not India. However, inputs are also being taken from the Indian team. Now, although the top honcho didn’t go into the exact details of these EVs, he did mention that its riding range is expected to be around 100kms in a single charge. 

The government had earlier asked the manufacturers to shift to EVs by 2030, but recently the transport minister was quoted as saying that there’s still some time for a concrete EV roadmap. However, Honda doesn’t want to be left behind, so it made sense for them to get a headstart by building some electric scooters for India anyway. 

It´s highly likely that the company would develop a new e-scooter with the Activa body shell. The Activas have tremendous brand recall, so it makes sense for the Japanese manufacturer to play with it, unless, Honda wants to design a new set of e-scooters which are more aspirational and stylish.