Honda Motorcycles & Scooters India Ltd emerged as the first Japanese brand in India to come up with an electric offering. In fact, Honda came up with two EVs, QC1 and Activa e. Now, there seems to be a third EV that the company is developing. Only, this is not an electric scooter, but its first ever electric motorcycle. Let’s take a closer look.
Honda Shine Electric Bike Patent Leaks
As per a leaked patent document, Honda seems to be working on its first ever electric commuter motorcycle. This development has surfaced right on the cusp of a new wave of electric motorcycles that are just breaking the surface. Right now, we already have Ola Roadster X, Oben Rorr EZ, Revolt RV and Pure EV EcoDryft.
Now, Honda seems to be diving into this segment with a budget commuter, which could bear the name Shine in it. Say, Shine e, similar to what the naming strategy was with Activa e. We say this because the leaked patent design shows a budget commuter with what looks like a cradle chassis holding electric batteries and motor.
These batteries are likely to be the same as the ones seen in Activa e, which are swappable at Honda’s swapping stations that are currently only present in Bengaluru and only cater to Activa e. If they are leveraging already established swapping stations, these battery packs are likely to be of the same capacity too, which is 1.5 kWh each, adding up to 3 kWh in total.
Derived EV from Shine ICE?
Interestingly, this would be the first electric vehicle to launch in India that might have a shared platform with an already existing ICE vehicle. Derived EVs, as we call them in electric 4W industry which is quite a common approach. We can see that this leaked patent carries a similar silhouette as that of a Shine.
A long single-piece seat, commuter style headlight assembly, 17-inch or 18-inch alloy wheels, RSU telescopic front forks, twin shock absorbers at the rear and conventional tube-type handlebar are some of the notable features that one can deduce from these leaked patent designs.
There may be a fully digital instrument cluster to show all parameters of an electric powertrain. Nothing fancy like a touchscreen display or anything else is expected. The company might price it at a premium when compared to the Shine 100 and Shine 125, which are currently among the best-selling commuters in India, only behind Hero MotoCorp’s Splendor.
Source: Bike - rushlane.com
