It was at the 2016 Auto Expo, that Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) had showcased the Navi. A tiny bike of sorts with the heart of a scooter! Modelled on the famous Grom motorcycles from Honda, the Navi was fully designed and developed in India and for sale in India. In essence, the Navi was something of a disruptive product (in Honda's own words). And it sure did catch the fancy of the average scooter buyer. The Honda Navi has neither the practicality of a scooter nor does it have the power of a motorcycle, even if it be a 100 cc one. What it does have and has oodles of it, is spunk. The Honda Navi is for those who like to express themselves through the two-wheeler that they ride. One-of-a-kind, non-conforming, Iconoclast, whatever you would like to call it!
(Honda Navi Chrome and Adventure Edition)It has the same 110 cc engine which does duty on the Activa. But if we were to talk about sheer performance, not only the Navi feels sprightlier but is more agile than the Activa too, thanks to a weight loss of 7 kgs. Also, Honda had launched two new variants of the Navi which were the 'Chrome edition' and the 'Adventure edition'. A prospective Navi customer can also get his mini-bike customised in different colours. Owing to its peppy and lively characteristic, the Honda Navi won the NDTV Two-Wheeler of the year, the NDTV Two-Wheeler Design of the year and the NDTV Mini-Bike of the year awards for 2017.
(The Honda Navi won the Carandbike Mini Bike of the Year award for 2017)Coming to the sales of the Navi, Honda sold over 50,000 units from the time it was launched in March 2016 till October 2016. So that works out to 7,142 units sold a month (roughly, not exact). But, from November 2016 till March 2017, Honda could only add another 10,000 unit sales of the Navi, selling a total of 60,000 units of the Navi from March 2016 till March 2017. In all fairness, HMSI did set a target of 50,000 unit sales in the first year of the Navi and have exceeded it by a solid 10,000 units and counting.
But sourcing the exact sales numbers from January 2017 till April 2017 (We could not procure the numbers for May 2017) tells a different story. The sales of the Navi dropped from over 2,000 units in January 2017 to a little less than 300 units in a space of four months. While it is difficult to ascertain the exact cause for the drop, we fear that the Navi is slowly losing its attraction of being the only vehicle in its category.| Honda Navi | Sales Figures (SIAM) |
|---|---|
| Jan-17 | 2,052 |
| Feb-17 | 1,180 |
| Mar-17 | 503 |
| Apr-17 | 284 |
