Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India is on the verge of expanding its premium motorcycle portfolio in the Asian subcontinent. As per recent reports, the obvious candidates for this expansion plan are Honda Rebel 300 cruiser motorcycle and ADV 160 maxi scooter along with an India-specific 500cc platform. Let’s take a look.
Honda Rebel 300
The company’s premium lineup is sold via their BigWing dealerships. Currently, Honda has a few premium motorcycles on sale in India. These include Hornet 2.0, CB200X, CB300F, CB300R, CB350, H’ness CB350, CB350 RS, NX500, CB650R, CBR650R, Transalp and the flagship Goldwing.
The new entrants in Honda’s premium segment are Rebel 300 cruiser/bobber style motorcycle and ADV 160 maxi-style sporty scooter. Reportedly, there are two new 500cc motorcycles in the development based on a new India-specific platform. Codenamed MLHJ and MLWA, these motorcycles are likely to make a bigger splash in the middle-weight segment.
Rebel 300 is expected to launch by the end of 2025 or early 2026. It will be powered by the same 286cc single-cylinder liquid-cooled engine as CB300R, which has been localised for cost efficiency. After the major price cut, CB300R is now priced at Rs 2.4 lakh (Ex-sh) and Rebel 300 could be positioned even lower, similar to global pricing strategies.
Rebel 300 is built to be a comfortable cruiser for long hauls and it gets a low 690 mm seat height and it weighs around 170 kg. Retro styling cues are likely to work in its favour, positioning it as a high-tech alternative to Royal Enfield’s old-school 350cc motorcycles. The 500cc bikes, on the other hand, might use the same 471cc parallel twin engine as NX500 sold in India and will rival Royal Enfield’s 650cc portfolio.
ADV 160 Scooter
Sporty high-performance scooters are getting traction in India. Yamaha Aerox 155 was a stellar scooter and Hero jumped into this segment with the newly-launched Xoom 160. India’s biggest scooter manufacturer by volume, Honda, aims to carve a piece of this pie with the launch of a new large capacity high-performance scooter.
Codenamed K4LA, this scooter is highly likely to be ADV 160, or a version based on ADV 160. Either way, it will be powered by a liquid-cooled 157cc engine 16 bhp of peak power and 14.7 Nm of peak torque. ADV 160 gets large wheels (14-inch front, 13-inch rear) and packs an 8.1L fuel tank, which is larger than Aerox 155 and Xoom 160. Launch is likely in 2026 and pricing is expected to be on the higher side as this engine doesn’t do duty on any other products in India.
