On the fringes of the 64th SIAM conference on Tuesday, a top corporate official said that Honda Motorcycles and Scooters, a Japanese producer of two-wheelers, will be introducing an electric motor scooter in FY25.
Honda Motorcycles and Scooters’ Director of Marketing and Sales Yogesh Mathur says the company has a lot of interesting opportunities in the electric vehicle sector. “EV’s contribution was around 5% until last year, but it’s currently close to 8%, indicating that it’s growing. And by 2030, a sizable portion will be switching to electric vehicles. Additionally, we have said that by 2030, at least one-third of our portfolio would consist only of electric vehicles,” stated Mathur.
According to Mathur, a third of the sector is made up of the 100–110 cc category. Honda launched the Shine 100 last year, but apart from that, the company has been absent from this market for some time. It is anticipated that the new electric two-wheeler will be introduced to fill the gap in this market. According to Mathur, the corporation was mostly attempting to prioritise its own difficulties, so it is not too late to deploy EVs.
“We developed the Honda Shine 100, which is currently delivering excellent overall growth figures. Thus, the main consideration in making this business choice was giving our own difficulties top priority. Based on this, only Honda Shine (in the 100–110 cc class) was the first product to market, and moving forward, we have additional interesting goods that will also be introduced, according to Mathur.
Mathur believes that receiving subsidies won’t likely have any impact on the sector, which is expecting incentives and subsidies for electrification. “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,” added Mathur.
Mathur claims that the two-wheeler market is expanding at a rate of 16% at the moment. “This year, the two-wheeler sector was predicted to rise by around 10% to 12%, but as of right now, it has grown by 16%. Furthermore, the increase of scooters is greater than that of motorcycles, particularly when we divide it into scooters and motorcycles. Accordingly, scooter growth is around 24%, while motorcycle growth is approximately 13%, with an average of 16%. Thus, it is evident from this which area is expanding. Thus, compared to rural areas, the urban region is essentially displaying a good trend, noted Mathur. According to Mathur, 30–35% of two-wheeler sales are made in the rural sector.
Scooters make up 60% of sales for Honda bikes, while bikes make up 40%. The Honda Activa is the best-selling model in the 125cc scooter market, while the Shine 125 and Glamour are Honda’s best-selling motorbikes in the 125cc market. In comparison to other sectors, Mathur claims that the 125 cc motorbike and scooter market is expanding more quickly.
At the moment, the market for entry-level motorcycles under 100–110 cc is expanding by about 2%. However, the largest increase is occurring in 125 CC, where it is increasing by 55%, while the area from 150 to 180 is now dropping by around -9%. First, the entry-level is moving in the direction of 125 cc. Consequently, the beginning level is moving towards 125 CC, and customers always upgrade to a higher category when they reach 150 CC and beyond,” explained Mathur.
In response to questions about investigating alternative technologies, Mathur stated that the nation’s two-wheeler industry is “too versatile to accommodate all types of technologies.” “EV has its own space. Room for flex fuel is present. There is space for these kinds of replacement items. And it will keep expanding in that manner as the industry’s whole size and scope are so great that everyone in this specific category may live in harmony with one another and with one another,” stated Mathur.
