#57 - Does Honda have a Strategy for India?

We start this newsletter with some doodling that we did in our editorial room yesterday. We were trying to make sense of why Honda is playing so passively in the Indian market. This is what we came up with.

Honda is not a startup that has to prove anything to anyone. They have a nearly 50% share of the Indian scooter market, a share that has not dropped one bit due to electric scooter startups (see the data in our writeup). India is their most important market. India is their most profitable market. We don't say that; Honda does.

All they want is to build further brick-by-brick while maintaining their margins.

Hurry? That's for startups living on borrowed time and investor funds. This is Honda. Our story, published today, has all that and more.

What is Honda’s electric play in India?

Late-entrant Honda shows no urgency in its India E2W play. Its Go-To-Market is linked with its battery-swapping network rollout. The problem is that three years after the start of the pilot, the Honda e-swap has reached only 1% of the population. Are they serious about India’s E2W market?

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Circularity of sustainability

Earlier this week, we wrote about the Circularity of Sustainability. Batteries must be recycled, and with E2Ws and micromobility accounting for most batteries under deployment, the onus is on the industry. Ace Green Recycling, a US-Singapore-India-based battery recycling expert, has formed a strategic joint venture with Spiro, Africa's leading electric motorcycle startup. Ace would be helping Spiro recycle their used LFP batteries.

Meanwhile, Honda India has partnered with OMC Power to deploy second-life MPPs as power backup and grid stabilizers in rural areas with poor-quality electricity supply.

The Circularity of Sustainability

For electric mobility to be truly sustainable, battery recycling has to be a core requirement for participants. Honda and Spiro are at least making the right moves, figuring out in the early days how their batteries would be redeployed and recycled once their charge drops to below usable.

Insight EVEditor

Pierer Mobility 2024 numbers are depressing.

Pierer Mobility's preliminary numbers for 2024 are not surprising - revenue is down 29%, and dispatches declined 21%. However, the more significant news from KTM was Stefan Pierer handing over the CEO responsibility to Gottfried Neumeister. We don't rate it as a big shuffle at the top of KTM - Pierer still controls things as the co-CEO. Instead, we find this to get some spotlight away from him as the group focuses on reorganization.

Pierer Mobility reports preliminary figures for 2024; Stefan Pierer exits as CEO

Pierer Mobility has reported preliminary key figures for 2024. As expected, revenues are down 29%, and dispatches to dealers declined by 21% even though the company says that inventory reduction is on. Importantly, Stefan Pierer has handed over the CEO responsibility to Gottfried Neumeister.

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Pierer Mobility Finds Funding

At this time, it’s not much.

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That's a wrap for today. This newsletter will be back next Thursday. The posts on the website are more frequent. Also, there is a new X in town.