Honda Stylo 160 Retro Scooter Design Patented In India

Honda patented the designs of four 500cc and above bikes in India about a week ago and now the Japanese manufacturer has patented the design of the Honda Stylo 160. The premium 160cc Honda retro scooter is currently sold in the Indonesian market for IDR 27,745,000 (around Rs 1.44 lakh). 

The Honda Stylo 160 is powered by a 156.9cc, liquid-cooled, single-cylinder engine producing 15.4PS at 8500rpm and 13.8Nm at 7000rpm. It gets a suspension setup of a telescopic fork and single shock absorber. The scooter gets two types of brake setup - 220mm disc brakes at both ends with dual-channel ABS and a 190mm front disc, and a rear drum setup with CBS (Combined Braking System). It gets an LCD instrument console and design-wise, the rear-end looks quite similar to the Yamaha Fascino 125 Fi Hybrid. 

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Now, it is highly unlikely that Honda will be launching this premium 160cc scooter in India anytime soon, even though the manufacturer has patented the design. We think Honda might have done this to secure the legal rights to the names here. Also, Honda already has its 110cc and 125cc scooter lineup sorted with the Honda Activa, Honda Activa 125, Honda Dio and the Honda Dio 125, all specifically designed for the Indian market. These scooters are mass market products and it is evident by the sales numbers as Honda sold 12,944 units of the Dio and Dio 125 and 2,60,300 units of the Activa and Activa 125 during the month of April 2024. On the other hand, in the 160cc scooter segment, Yamaha sold 1,902 units of the Yamaha Aerox 155 and Aprilia sold 278 units of the Aprilia SXR 160 last month. 

As you can see, the 160cc scooter segment is quite niche in the country and if Honda brings in a 160cc, liquid-cooled scooter in India, it’ll be prohibitively expensive and Honda may not be able to justify the small sales numbers. In fact, the manufacturer brought a few units of the Forza 300 to India via the CBU (Completely Built Up) route in 2020 to gauge the customers’ response and was later planning to launch the Forza 350. However, the plan never really materialised due to multiple factors like the Covid pandemic and also a general shift from petrol-powered scooter segment to electric scooter segment.