Honda QC1 Outsells Activa E Many Times Over: Battery Swapping Flop?
In the electric two-wheeler race, Honda’s slow start is turning heads for the wrong reasons. With the mighty Activa brand name behind it, the Activa E should have been a bestseller. Instead, it’s struggling. And the culprit?
A bold but flawed bet on battery swapping, without a home charging option. From January to March 2025, 698 units of the Activa E were sold compared to 2,804 units of the QC1. Clearly, the QC1 makes for 8/10 electric scooters Honda is selling in India.
What Honda Attempted to Do
When Honda launched the Activa E, it wasn’t just aiming to electrify India’s most trusted scooter brand. It was trying to reshape how EVs are refuelled. Unlike most electric scooters that offer home charging as standard, the Activa E shipped without a charger or charging port. Instead, it relied entirely on a battery swapping network operated through dealers. The idea, in theory, had some logic.
Dealers have long feared that EVs will cut into their bread and butter: servicing. With fewer moving parts and no oil changes, EVs don’t bring customers back as frequently. So Honda offered a solution. Battery swapping would be dealer-controlled, creating a steady revenue stream and keeping customers tethered to the showroom.
But theory rarely survives reality.
What Went Wrong
The battery swapping model sounded futuristic, but it demanded too much from the user. For one, customers had to visit a specific battery station, often at or near a dealership, whenever they ran out of charge. There was no option to simply plug the scooter in overnight at home. For urban commuters with unpredictable schedules or limited access to a swap station, this quickly became inconvenient.
To make matters worse, swapping wasn’t cheap either. In fact, it was costlier than home charging over time. While it did save on the upfront cost of buying the battery, riders quickly realised that recurring swap fees were eating into their monthly budgets. For a value-driven market, this was an issue Honda couldn’t ignore.
The result? Buyers are favouring the cheaper and more practical Honda QC1, a no-frills electric scooter designed with cost effectiveness in mind. Unlike the Activa E, it’s lighter, simpler, and gets the job done without trying to reinvent the wheel. In just four months, the QC1 has outsold the Activa E. That should raise serious alarm bells at Honda’s headquarters.
What Others Are Doing Right
Honda isn’t the only one dabbling with removable batteries. Hero Vida, Simple Energy, and a few others also offer battery systems that users can take out and charge. But here’s the key difference, they also offer a standard home-charging option. Buyers are not forced to choose between convenience and innovation. They get both.
It’s also a flexibility thing. Some users may prefer home charging. Others may find swapping convenient in certain situations. The most successful EVs in the market today are the ones that leave the choice to the user.
Lessons for the Future
Honda’s attempt to shift the entire refuelling model of scooters overnight might have been a step too far. Consumers, even those excited about EVs, are not ready to give up control. The ability to charge at home is no longer a luxury, it’s a basic expectation. Taking that away was like selling a car without a fuel cap, and then asking drivers to queue up at a special station every time they needed petrol.
Battery swapping as a concept isn’t dead. It has merit, especially for fleet applications, high-usage commercial two-wheelers, or in areas with serious power constraints. But for the average daily commuter, home charging is non-negotiable.
Honda’s future electric launches will need to course-correct. And fast. While the Activa E might have stumbled, the brand still has the strength to recover, provided it listens to what the market is saying loud and clear: give people the power to charge where and how they want.
Because in the world of EVs, convenience trumps everything else. Even brand loyalty.