Honda Activa e: First Ride Review

It has been a long wait but we finally have electric scooters from Honda. The Activa e: runs on battery swapping technology and is available only in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi. The ICE Activa has been the highest selling scooter in India so the electric one seems to have a big responsibility to fulfill. We got a chance to ride the Activa e: in varying traffic and road conditions in Bengaluru to bring you this review.

Design

The Honda Activa e: gets a simple yet distinctive design, featuring an apron-mounted LED headlight and an LED DRL on the handlebar cowl. The silhouette of the scooter from the side profile does remind you of the ICE Activa. Towards the rear, the tail section gets a stylish LED tail light and it is available in five colours: Pearl Shallow Blue, Pearl Serenity Blue, Pearl Misty White, Matt Foggy Silver Metallic, and Pearl Igneous Black. As expected from Honda, the fit-and-finish and build quality level is really good. 

Performance

The motor in the Activa e: delivers a peak output of 6kW and it has a claimed 0-60kmph acceleration time of 7.3 seconds. The scooter gets three riding modes including Eco, Standard, and Sport which have been tuned well for different riding scenarios. With a top-speed of only 80kmph, this is not the fastest EV scooter but the acceleration feels very smooth and it has really good throttle calibration, making it effortless to ride in the city. Sport mode is ideal for making quick overtakes and the Standard mode is good for cruising at 50kmph. Eco mode might feel a little too slow, but makes sense for when you are stuck in stop-go traffic. 

Battery and Range

The scooter makes use of two swappable 1.5kWh batteries, which gives it a 3kWh capacity. Together, these batteries are said to provide a claimed range of 102 km. They have to be swapped at Honda's battery swapping stations, and cannot be charged at home. We did experience swapping the batteries at a station and it was a quick procedure. Might just even be quicker than fueling up a scooter. Honda currently has the most swapping stations operational in Bengaluru and plans to expand the number of stations in Mumbai and Delhi. 

We only had the scooter for a few hours so range is something that we will have to test later. But there is something that we noticed during our time spent with the scooter. The full range displayed after swapping out the batteries was 102km and the range displayed remained the same in all three riding modes. Honda says that the range will drop faster in Standard and Sport mode. But this can lead to range anxiety, so it would have been nice if the accurate range for each mode is displayed when the mode is switched. 

Storage

Due to the dual battery setup, there is a very little bit of underseat storage behind the batteries. At the front, the scooter gets two small storage pockets, which are quite tiny and will only fit really small items. So when it comes to practicality, you just have some space on the floorboard if you are heading out for a grocery run.

Handling and Ride Quality

The Activa e: has a kerb weight of 119 kg, rides on 12-inch diamond-cut alloy wheels, and gets a ground clearance of 171 mm. It offers fairly decent ride quality for our Indian road conditions but does feel a bit stiff when riding through really bad sections of road. With a pillion on board, the ride quality feels plusher over bad roads. The tyres offered good grip throughout our time spent with the scooter and the brakes also performed well, offering enough bite and getting the scooter to come to a halt in a safe manner.

Features

This top-spec variant gets a 7-inch TFT display featuring Bluetooth connectivity, enabling incoming call alerts and navigation. The display is crisp and clean and navigating through the menus is easy with the switchgear on the left hand side. The scooter also features a keyless system, a USB charging port, and a reverse mode. The reverse mode is unique, requiring no throttle input but for a rider to press two buttons continuously and releasing one when they need to stop reversing. It will require some getting used to. 

Verdict

The Honda Activa e: is a smooth and simple electric scooter. Its swappable battery system is convenient and quick, though you will have to rely on the availability of Honda's swapping stations. It has decent performance and range, making it suitable for urban commuting, although it is not the most practical offering owing to the fact that it has very minimal storage space. 

Coming to an important talking point which is the price of this scooter. This top-spec variant we were riding with Bluetooth connectivity is priced at Rs 1,51,600 (ex-showroom). The variant which misses out on the TFT and Bluetooth connectivity is priced at Rs 1,17,000 (ex-showroom). Now that is really expensive when you consider that you do not own the batteries and have to run the scooter on a subscription. From what we currently know, there are two options available. The 40km/day subscription is priced at Rs 2,000 + GST per month and the 100km/day subscription is priced at Rs 3,600 + GST. That would bring running costs in a year to over Rs 25,000 or Rs 44,000, depending on the subscription you pick. In my opinion, this does not make sense as it seems to work out more expensive than filling fuel in an ICE scooter. We hope Honda can find a way to reduce the prices of the subscription or charge customers only on the basis of how many kilometres they are riding every month.