Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India is reportedly bringing in a new scooter to replace the Honda Aviator. This comes shortly after the Honda Aviator along with the Honda Activa-i, Activa 5G, previous-gen Honda Dio, Activa 125 and Grazia were all discontinued in India.
The scooters were discontinued thanks to the implementation of the stringent BS-VI emissions norms. For the BS-VI era, Honda developed three new scooters on a new platform. Honda launched the BS-VI compliant Activa 6G, new-gen Dio and Activa 125.
However, the Japanese manufacturer did not launch a BS-VI compliant Aviator, which suggests that it is the end of the road for the Aviator. When the Honda Aviator was first launched, it was one of a kind as the premium scooter segment did not exist in India back then.
It offered premium features such as a disk brake up front, alloy wheels, body-coloured dashboard and even a small screen for the odometer. The scooter also looks premium, and it was bigger than the other scooters on sale back then. However, over the years, things changed in the scooter segment.
Premium features were being offered by competitors such as the Suzuki Access 125, and while the Activa held its own, the Aviator’s sales dropped. Honda put the final nail in the coffin when it launched the Grazia, which did a better job at being a premium scooter.
Well, the Aviator barely sold and hence it makes no sense investing money into R&D required to make it BS-VI compliant. Hence, we bid adieu to the Honda Aviator. Now though, a report by Autocar suggests a replacement scooter will be launched soon.
It will be based on the new scooter platform that underpins Honda’s BS-VI scooters. Honda did not equip the Activa 6G with features like alloy wheels, disc brake, digital instrument cluster, etc. These features might make an appearance on the upcoming scooter. The upcoming scooter will fill the space of the Aviator, but will not be called the Aviator.
Honda would want to create some excitement with the new scooter, which the ‘Aviator’ badge wouldn’t really be able to do. There are no other details regarding the upcoming scooter and neither do we have a launch timeline for it.
We do know it will be powered by the same BS-VI compliant 110cc single-cylinder engine as the Activa 6G and new Honda Dio. Honda might even launch a 125cc version of the scooter.
