Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India have announced their future plans, which involves the path to flex-fuels, and electric mobility. The Japanese two-wheeler giant plans to implement flex-fuel technology in its lineup in a phased manner. Interestingly, Honda unveiled the first flex-fuel motorcycle in the world globally back in 2009. While the potential for flex-fuel two wheelers in India remains largely untapped for now, the Government of India is keen pushing the technology. Flex-fuel is essentially a mixture of gasoline and ethanol, which is designed to run on an internal combustion engine with slight alterations. The advantage here is that ethanol burns cleaner than gasoline and releases less toxic fumes into the environment.
Besides flex-fuel, Honda has also announced its plans for the electric future. While Honda currently does not have a presence in the EV segment, it says it is currently studying feasibility for electric two-wheelers in India along with building the infrastructure, and plans to introduce multiple products in the EV segment in the coming years.
Honda also confirmed plans to introduce a new entry-level commuter motorcycle, but didn’t give out any further details. We expect it to be a rival to the Hero Splendor and more details should roll out in the coming few months.
Atsushi Ogata, Managing Director, President & CEO, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India said, “Bringing the synergies of Honda’s global expertise with strong indigenous support, HMSI will further expand its horizons in India. A staggered implementation of flex-fuel technology and multiple EV model introduction in future will lead to an exciting journey ahead. HMSI also plans to enter the low-end motorcycle segment while boosting its new fun models’ business in domestic markets. Parallely expanding its wings overseas, HMSI aims to serve more developed countries with its highest level of global quality standards.”
Yadvinder Singh Guleria, Director, Sales & Marketing, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India said, “Cherishing a relationship of trust with customers and a community built over 20 years, HMSI today delights more than 5 crore Indian families. Moving further, though supply chain issues still persist and the industry faces head winds of increasing commodity and fuel prices, we anticipate a sustained market recovery on a lower base of last fiscal.”
Honda unveiled a range of new motorcycles for the year 2022-23 not too long ago — click here to read more about it.