Piaggio Vespa 150 & Aprilia SR150 are India’s first scooters to get ABS

The Indian government has made it mandatory for all the two-wheelers above 125cc to offer mandatory Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) from 1st April 2019. The two-wheelers include both bikes and scooters. Manufacturers have already started offering ABS versions of their products in the Indian market but all of them are motorcycles. This is the first time that affordable scooters have been spotted with ABS in India. Images courtesy, PowerDrift.

The Piaggio Vespa 150 and the Aprilia SR 150 have been spotted with the new safety measure in the Indian market. Both the brands are under the same Piaggio group and are expected to launch the updated product soon. However, there has been no official word on the launch of the updated scooters with ABS. This is the first time that an affordable scooter has been seen with the ABS in India.

Both the bikes already offered the disc brake on the front wheel. The rear wheel will continue to get the drum brake set-up. Also, the scooters spotted in the pictures will only get single-channel ABS as there is no norm that mandates dual-channel ABS in the two-wheelers. The single-channel ABS works only on the front wheel of the two-wheeler and will ensure that the scooter does not go out of control under hard braking.

Most of the times, applying the front brake too hard locks up the wheel and causes the two-wheeler to go out of control. This will ensure that this does not happen. Controlling a two-wheeler with a locked-up rear wheel is much easier than controlling one with the locked-up front wheel. The mandatory ABS will surely bring down the number of accidents on the Indian roads, which are one of the most unpredictable roads in the world.

Last year, the government banned the sale of BS-III vehicles in the Indian market, which caused a lot of manufacturers to rush and launch the BS-IV compliant models in the Indian market. Also, the Automatic Headlamp On (AHO) feature was made mandatory in the two-wheelers last year, which ensures that the two-wheelers get maximum visibility on the roads.

With the addition of ABS, the prices of the two-wheelers are set to rise. Most of the two-wheelers with ABS will see a price rise of around Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 7,000, which is quite a lot of affordable two-wheelers. While this may not negatively affect the sales, the customers would surely feel the pinch. However, this is something that will save a lot of accidents on the roads, which is a fair deal for shelling out the extra money.

Even the two-wheelers below 125cc would get the combi-brake system (CBS) as a mandatory feature from 1st April 2019. The CBS ensures that the brake force is evenly distributed to both the front and rear wheels while applying pressure on only the front brake. It brings down the braking distance and ensures maximum safety.