Honda to roll out 125cc Activa by September this year

July 4, 2013: Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI), which posted 11.1 percent growth in its June 2013 sales of 252,114 units (June 2012: 226,929 units), is gearing up to spearhead the 125cc scooter segment within the ongoing quarter (July-September 2013).

The fast-growing company plans to redefine its popular 109.2cc Activa by launching a 125cc-engined variant in September this year. This will increase the Activa stable to three variants with the existing two being the standard model and the recently launched HET-enabled Activa-i. According to a reliable industry source, Honda has developed an air-cooled, single-cylinder, four-stroke, 125cc engine which will come equipped with the company’s proprietory Honda Eco Technology (HET). HMSI introduced HET on the 2013 year model Activa, Aviator and Dio scooter models which rolled out on January 17 this year.

“The company has also focussed on a bunch of lightweighting initiatives along with maximising the fuel efficiency of the newly developed engine without compromising on the power output, keeping it marginally more than the direct competitors,” added another industry source.

Honda’s upcoming popular scooter will squarely target Suzuki’s Access 125 (and the Swish 125), Mahindra Two Wheelers’ Duro DZ and Rodeo RZ (equipped with Z-series 125cc engines) models. Apart from these models, the 125cc gearless scooter segment also includes Piaggio’s Vespa 125 LX and the upcoming 125cc VX model to be launched tomorrow.

With HMSI of late registering a relatively lower month-on-month growth rate in its scooter category (6.25 percent as compared to motorcycles growing by nearly 17 percent during June 2013), the Activa 125 will undoubtedly give a fillip to the company’s scooter sales. We understand that launching the bigger-engined Activa model well before Diwali (which comes up in early November) will provide enough time to the company to execute pan-India deliveries.

While it is clear that HMSI does not have any plans to roll out bigger-engined Dio and Aviator models along with the upcoming 125cc Activa, all calls made to the company in this regard went unanswered.

RISHAD COOPER (With inputs from Amit Panday)