Honda Activa e: and QC1 – Revolution

Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India’s electric scooter duo is finally here. The Honda Activa e: and the QC1 are the first from HMSI, and in the burgeoning electric scooter segment, they mark the end to the brand’s absence.

Let’s start with the more affordable of the two, the Honda QC1. It’s priced at ₹90,000, ex-showroom, and has a relatively modest spec sheet. It must be noted that while the price is low, it doesn’t appear that Honda has cut corners in terms of overall quality. Its 50 km/h top speed might be the first giveaway to its humble potential, but it should be fine for younger riders or anyone looking for a city runabout. The scooter’s aptly named Econ mode takes things to the next level as it drops the top speed to 30 km/h, whereas ‘Standard’ makes it slightly better to live with.

The claimed range of 80 km sounds alright, but the 330-watt charger will take close to seven hours for a full charge. During our testing, I managed to get 64 km/h on the QC1. We encountered rush hour traffic and managed to test the scooter in both the aforementioned modes. While its performance isn’t impressive, it needs to be noted that the suspension works flawlessly. The brakes aren’t bad, and the overall quality is quite good, too.

Powerful & better equipped

The more powerful and better-specced Honda Activa e: follows a different approach to electric motoring. The Honda Activa e: comes with the ability to instantly refuel with the help of swappable batteries. So, for instance, you can ride to any of the 200+ swapping stations in the city of Bengaluru and replace your scooter’s empty one with a fully charged battery in under 40 seconds. The customer bears the cost of that through two subscription plans: ₹1,999+GST will allow you to use 35 kW per month or 87 kW per month for ₹3,599+GST. The former roughly gives you 40 km per day, while the latter gives you 100 km per day. You can still get fresh batteries beyond that on a pay-per-swap basis.

The Honda Activa e: is available in two versions: Standard and the feature-loaded RoadSync Duo, priced at ₹1.17 lakh and ₹1.52 lakh, respectively. Both prices are ex-showroom. The Activa e: is well-balanced and has great ergonomics, and while I felt its rear suspension to be on the stiffer side, its ride didn’t give me a reason to complain. The electric scooter is brilliant to ride, it filters through traffic with ease, and while the range I got was somewhere around 70 km on a full charge, the ability to swap to a new battery within seconds is a boon. That lowly range was also because I might’ve had too much fun in the Sport mode, but the Standard mode is quite all right, only the Econ mode feels a touch slow off the line.

Power precision

One issue that needs to be mentioned is that these scooters have a max payload of 150 kg, and steep gradients can be an issue if the collective weight of you and the pillion is more than that. Gradual slopes are fine, but steeper climbs, especially out of multi-level car parks, might be an issue. The Active e: can handle a gradient of more than seven degrees in Sport mode, but Econ and Standard might be useless.

The QC1 can be a good grocery-getter, and if your use case doesn’t involve riding next to high-speed traffic or for long, it won’t be a bad choice. The Active e:, on the other hand, is definitely better-equipped. It doesn’t have under seat storage, which is a shame, but with the ability to swap batteries in a jiffy, it can be a great choice as a commuter. The only thing we’re left with now is to see if these electric scooters are actually the future or just an expensive compromise.

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