Wk 5 2025 – Does Honda have a Strategy for India?

Honda's 50% market share of the Indian scooter market is handy as it enters electric mobility with the Activa e: and QC1 scooters. But the prices and the subscription plans leave everyone puzzled. They don't want to disrupt the market. Instead, Honda wants to take it apart, brick-by-brick.

Published : January 30, 2025
442 words

Table of Content

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 write-up). 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? – InsightEV
Late-entrant Honda shows no urgency in its India E2W play. Its Go-To-Market is linked with its battery-swapping network rollout.

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 – InsightEV
For electric mobility to be truly sustainable, battery recycling has to be a core requirement for participants. Honda and Spiro are making the right moves.

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 – InsightEV
Pierer Mobility has reported preliminary key figures for 2024. As expected, revenues are down 29%, and dispatches to dealers declined by 21%
Pierer Mobility Finds Funding – InsightEV
Pierer Mobility notified that it has received several offers from investors as part of the investor process structured by Citigroup Global Markets Europe AG.

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.


You can find the About and Editorial Ethics pages here.
Previous Article

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?

Next Article

Ola Electric Updates its Scooter Portfolio

The company launched what it says is the Gen-3 of its hardware and software platform that underpins the Ola S1 scooter range. However, it seems that the company has changed the definition of Gen-3 from the one that it had shared during its quarterly results on Nov 08, 2024

Insight EV Related Articles

Dear Africa, Don’t Do an India

A disturbing video dropped into my WhatsApp yesterday. This came from Africa and captured a boneyard full of broken electric motorcycles. A rough count puts the number of machines at about a hundred, parked in a small lot. The thick layer of dust, expected in Africa, indicated that the motorcycles...

February 26, 2026

India: Yamaha Shoots Itself in the Foot…Like the Other Japanese

Yesterday, Yamaha announced the prices of the upcoming EC-06 scooter in the Indian market at INR 167,600, ex-showroom in Delhi. At that price, the EC-06 is at the very top end of the market.  The problem is that the specifications are nowhere near the top.  The EC-06 is not Yamaha's own scooter....

February 4, 2026

Honda Expands Range in Thailand and Vietnam with the UC3

Honda has introduced the UC3 electric scooter in Thailand and Vietnam markets. This is the third Honda electric scooter in the geography, with both the CUV e: and Icon e: already in the market. The CUV e: is energised with the Honda MPP swappable batteries, while the Icon e: has...

January 12, 2026

Meet the Yamaha Jog E…and it Looks Familiar

Remember Gachaco? It is a fast-spreading battery swapping network in Japan, a collaboration between the four Japanese two-wheeler manufacturers and ENEOS Holdings. Unlike many other collaborative swapping networks elsewhere, Gachaco is an experiment that has worked out well. It is getting popular in Japan, and Honda has deployed multiple models...

December 23, 2025

The most comprehensive deep dive into the electric two-wheeler and light vehicle industry.

© Copyright 2025 insightev. All rights reserved.