Honda Activa-i launched in India; Price: INR 44,200 ex-Delhi

For all those of you who found the Honda Activa 110 a little too bulbous, here's another Honda scooter that goes easy on the bulk, and the price as well. Market leader in the automatic scooter segment, Honda, has launched a slimmer and cheaper version of the Activa in the form of the Activa-i model. The Honda Activa-i is priced at 44,200 rupees, ex-showroom Delhi, a price that makes the automatic scooter the least priced in Honda's range. 

Powered by the same 110cc four stroke engine that the bigger Activa model comes with, the Activa-i's engine gets the same state of tune with 8 Bhp of peak power & 8.74 Nm of peak torque. The Honda Activa-i also gets the Honda HET (an acronym for Honda Eco Technology), which is a suite of engineering measures to boost fuel economy. The result is a claimed fuel economy of 60 Kmpl. At 103 kilograms, the Activa-i is lighter than the full sized Activa and comes with features such as combi-braking system, viscous air filter, tubeless tyres and maintenance free battery. 

The Honda Activa-i gets 18 liters of under seat storage, enough to hold a half face helmet plus plenty of other knick knacks and groceries. The scooter has a ground clearance of 165 mm, which sounds ample enough to navigate across potholes and speed breakers. That said, Honda still misses the party trick of telescopic front forks and the Activa-i is no exception. The newest automatic scooter in town continues to motor on with a unit link suspension up front (the only Honda scooter to feature telescopic front forks continues to be the Aviator 110). 

Slimmer in profile, the Honda Activa-i is aimed at folks looking at a lighter, nimbler option in the automatic scooter segment. Honda seems to be targeting the likes of the TVS Wego 110. The Activa-i is priced lower than the Wego, and this pricing could set the cat amongst the pigeons. The sharp pricing of the Activa-i could get competitors to drop prices as well. In case that pans out, we could have the first ever price war in the Indian automatic scooter segment. 

The Activa-i is available in 4 colours: Beige, White, Red and Silver, and the scooter will go on sale across India from the end of this month. Considering that the Activa-i is the least priced Honda scooter aimed at big volumes, the Japanese two wheeler maker has done a Dream Yuga Neo with its latest automatic scooter launch, one that has plenty of potential to further grow Honda's market share. 

It must be noted that the automatic scooter segment is one of the fastest growing categories of two wheelers in India and Honda is the market leader in this segment with over 50% market share. It'll be interesting to see if the Activa-i cannibalizes the sales of the bigger Activa due to its cheaper price tag, which is over 3,000 rupees lower than the regular Activa variant. Bullish on India, Honda plans to launch no less than 3-4 new products each year as it seeks to take the fight up to market leader Hero MotoCorp in the volumes game.

Honda is already India's second largest two wheeler maker by volume and launches such as the Dream Neo motorcycle and the Activa-i scooter are aimed at further reducing the gap between Honda and Hero MotoCorp. Honda plans to hit the 10 million mark in terms of yearly volumes by 2020. To get there, Honda has just opened a new manufacturing facility at Narsapura, off Bangalore, it's third two wheeler factory in India, after Manesar at Haryana and Tapukara at Rajasthan.