The upcoming Honda electric scooter for India will be locally developed while it is expected to break cover by the end of 2026.
Honda is, reportedly, working on a new electric scooter for the Indian market. It is likely to be developed with heavy localisation to achieve aggressive pricing in order to give sleepless nights to the likes of TVS iQube, Bajaj Chetak and Ather Rizta. The Japanese brand started its electrification journey in India with the Activa e: and QC1 e-scooters, which were launched in Feb 2025 in the country. However, poor sales forced the brand to temporarily pause the production of both the electric scooters a few months back.
Both the Activa electric and QC1 were based on the company’s global models while being re-engineered for the Indian market. However, the upcoming Honda electric scooter in India will be developed locally and have an identity of its own. It is learnt that the Japanese brand intends to fix the issues of the Activa e and QC1 with the launch of a new localised electric scooter.
For the unversed, Honda Activa e is the only electric scooter in the Indian market till date to miss out on home charging feature, even as a provisional one. The customers only have the option of Honda’s battery swapping stations but it is still in nascent stages and hence, if you live nearby such a station, then only you can even think of buying the Activa e.
Another big shortcoming in the Activa e was practically zero boot space as the detachable batteries were placed underneath the seat. On the contrary, if you look at rival electric scooters, all of them come with a 30-35 litres of underseat storage area. In addition, the pricing too was quite high while the monthly subscription packages were also quite expensive and Honda had to slash the pricing in order to make them more affordable for the buyers.
However, with the Honda QC1, both the issues of home charging and zero boot space were addressed up to some extent as it was introduced with home charging option and 26 litres underseat storage capacity. However, the buyers didn’t like the low top speed of 50 kmph and a paltry range of 80 km on a single charge. The charging time was also quite long at 7 hours. The QC1 missed out on several modern features while it was underpowered as well.
Hence, in the upcoming Honda localised electric scooter for India, we will see all these shortcomings being taken care of. We can expect it to come with decent boot capacity, adequate range and lesser charging time. The electric scooter is likely to get the latest set of features, which we see in the rival brand scooters. Also, as mentioned before, it will be priced aggressively due to maximum localisation. The new Honda e-scooter could debut by the end of 2026 in India.
