RECHARGING EVOLUTION

Honda's Activa e: may be late to the party but it has arrived with a game-changer

- Joshua Varghese

UPON RECEIVING THE key fob to a Honda Activa e:, the first thing we wanted to experience in the real world was Honda's revolutionary “e: Swap” technology because that sounded like a perfect solution for everyone sceptical about making the transition from internal combustion engine (ICE) to electric vehicle (EV) (us included). However, having used it, we must say, the experience is almost identical to arriving at a petrol pump to fill up fuel. First, we had to navigate to one of the 231 swap stations in Bengaluru, which was easy thanks to the scooter’s navigation function. Once there, a swipe of the RFID tag showed us which two slots we had to place the discharged batteries into. When they were docked in, two fully charged batteries were offered to us. We popped them into the scooter and were off again. All this took place in less than a minute with zero interaction with another human being and we were using this for the first time. Brilliant.

After filling a tankful of petrol in an ICE Activa, one can expect about 150-170 kilometres of range, so the Activa e:’s claimed range of 102 km seems reasonable at this stage because the technology has potential to improve over time. Currently, the Activa e: uses two 1.5-kWh battery packs that are stored under the seat. They are quick to release and install, which makes the whole process extremely easy.