Patent drawings could offer an early glimpse of Honda’s EV plans for India, ahead of an official announcement next week.
At the recent launch of the Shine 100, Honda revealed that it will be announcing its electric two-wheeler plans for India on March 29. Now, recently filed patents by the Japanese giant could give us an idea of what the future holds.
Honda has filed a large number of patents pertaining to EV technology in India, covering things like motors, battery packs, chargers, controllers and more. Among these filings are drawings showing the layout for what could be one of Honda’s upcoming electric scooters. And as far as the all important electric powertrain is concerned, we see that the scooter will get a fixed battery pack housed under the floorboard, and a hub motor at the rear wheel.
The latter detail isn’t entirely new – we came across another Honda patent a few months ago showing an Activa-based e-scooter powered by a hub motor. However, the floorboard on that design does not look substantial enough to house a battery pack, so it’s quite likely that Honda is working on both fixed and removable battery pack designs.
Speaking to top Honda executives recently, we learned that the company’s long-term goal is to have models featuring removable batteries, supported by a battery swapping network, but this will likely not be the case at the beginning of its EV journey.
Interestingly, the placeholder scooter seen in these drawings seems to sport a single-seat layout, hinting that it could be targeted at B2B applications. Hub motors are also unsuitable for high power applications, suggesting that performance is not going to be at the forefront of this platform. Other noteworthy details include Activa-inspired front-end styling, and what seem to be 12-inch wheels at both ends.
What would you prefer to see on Honda’s e-scooter, fixed or removable batteries? Tell us in the comments.