Honda Could Soon Be The New Player In India’s EV Market

The Honda Benly e electric scooter was recently spotted testing at the ARAI (Automotive Research Association of India) facility in Pune. The electric utility scooter made its international debut at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show. So, is this the electric scooter Honda promised to bring to our shores last year?

Honda had announced that it would be importing an electric two-wheeler from China to test in India, and the Honda Benly e could be just that. One of the highlights of the Honda Benly e is its removable battery pack. Team Red has already inked a deal with KTM, Yamaha and Piaggio for the development of a common battery swapping technology. In fact, a similar consortium has been formed amongst the Big Four as well. This gives Honda a great opportunity to test its battery swapping tech in India with the Benly e.

Along with the growing popularity of consumer-driven electric mobility solutions, the B2B (business-to-business) EV markets have witnessed a massive surge as well. Apart from the subsidies, the government may soon even waive off registration fees on electric vehicles. In fact, many B2C giants have already pledged to introduce electric vehicles in their delivery fleet.

But will the Honda Benly e be a viable product for the Indian businesses? It could be, if the Japanese giant heavily relies on localisation, and goes ahead with manufacturing the scooter here. The Benly e is available in four models -- Benly e I, Benly e I Pro, Benly e II and Benly e II Pro. The Benly e I and e I Pro are powered by a 2.8kW motor producing 13Nm while the e II duo use 4.2kW electric motor developing 15Nm. All the models come with Honda Mobile Pack removable batteries offering a claimed range of 87km (e I variants) and 43km (e II variants).

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Though the Honda Benly e is more powerful than the current crop of B2B electric scooters in our market, it will also be priced a lot higher. For reference, the prices for the e-scooter start at JPY737000 or Rs 4.94 lakh in Japan. This will not work in Honda’s favour, when businesses can opt for more economical options like Geliose Hope, Detel Easy Plus or even the Okinawa Dual which offer a similar range and have payload capacity of upto 200kg (against Benly’s 60kg) in spite of the puny 250 Watt engine. Hence we feel that the brand could be using the Benly e as a testbed for its battery tech.

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Honda’s best bet to enter the Indian electric two-wheeler market is to utilise a current platform. The Suzuki Burgman Electric and the Hero eMaestro are a great example of that. If Honda does take a leaf out of Suzuki’s and Hero MotoCorp’s books,we could soon be looking at the Honda Activa-e. Whether the Japanese giant goes for the Activa electric or brings the PCX electric scooter to India is something we will have to wait and watch. What we know for sure is that Honda is definitely fast-tracking its EV plans for the Indian two-wheeler market.

Image Source: Motorbeam