Honda officially launches the Activa125 at Rs 52,447

Honda launched its most powerful scooter, the Activa 125, today. It was an official announcement of the commencement of sales of the vehicle. The scooter has been priced at Rs 52,447 (ex-showroom Delhi) and is available in two variants - the STD variant and the DLX variant. The latter has been priced at Rs 58,156. There is no big surprise here as we have already seen the bike in February at the Auto Expo 2014. Soon after, the company also announced that bookings were open for the scooter.

The basic Activa is the best-selling scooter in India and surpassed even the sales of the Hero Splendor in the two-wheeler segment in March. No doubt its efficient 110cc engine, simple design, low maintenance and excellent resale value makes it the pick of the lot. The other two scooters in the 110cc segment from the Japanese manufacturer are the Dio, which has been finding popularity with the younger lot, and the Aviator, which was the only Honda scooter with a disc brake option until the Activa 125.

The Activa 125’s front profile shows a new design between the body and  side indicators. Cosmetically, the decals have been kept plain and subtle. It also gets a new digital speedometer. It will be available in four colours - black, midnight blue metallic, sword silver metallic and pearl sunbeam white.

The Activa 125 stands tall on a 12-inch 90/90 section front tyre and a 10-inch 90/100 section rear tyre. These are fitted on five-spoke alloy wheels. The two-wheeler is equipped with telescopic forks at the front and gets spring loaded hydraulic type suspension at the rear. The scooter boasts of an optional 190mm front disc brake. The 130mm drums brakes at the rear is adequate especially with the Combi Brake System, again as an option.

What also sets the new scooter apart from the regular Activa is the 125cc, four-stroke, single cylinder engine that is coupled to a V-matic CVT gearbox and churns out a maximum power output of 8.6bhp, while yielding 10.12Nm of peak torque. This is marginally more than the Aviator’s power output, but 1.12Nm more than its torque peak.

With this 125cc Activa, Honda plans to keep a tight hold on its customers lest they go looking for competition’s products like the Mahindra and Suzuki  125cc offerings. The 110cc segment was always a hotly contested one, but now attention seems to have shifted to the segment above.