Best Scooter India 2026: NTORQ 150 vs Aerox vs Jupiter vs Activa

The Problem With Scooter Advice in India

Every year around March, someone in your office or college group announces they’re buying a new scooty and wants recommendations. And every year, without fail, three people suggest the Activa, one person says get the Jupiter, someone’s cousin who watched a YouTube review insists on the NTORQ, and then one guy (always one) who says “bhai Vespa le le, ek dum alag lagta hai road pe.” This exact conversation plays out identically whether you’re in Pune, Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, or Lucknow. Same scooters, same debates, same confusion.

Nobody’s wrong, but nobody’s quite right either, because they’re all comparing different things. The person recommending the Activa is thinking about service centres. The Vespa guy is thinking about Instagram. The NTORQ enthusiast is imagining Sunday morning rides past Sinhagad. They’re optimizing for completely different priorities.

This guide tries to fix that. We’ve taken seven scooters, specifically their top variants only (because comparing a base model to a loaded top trim is intellectually dishonest), and put them through a thorough comparison across specs, features, running costs, and the all-important “does this make sense for a real Indian rider” test.

The 7 Contenders: What They Actually Represent

Before drowning in numbers, it’s worth understanding what each of these scooters is actually going for. They’re not all chasing the same buyer.

Honda Activa 125 H-Smart is Honda’s answer to “what if we made the most reliable commuter scooter in India and then added some tech to keep it relevant.” It now has a 4.2″ TFT display and Honda RoadSync connectivity. It’s still the safest recommendation for 90% of buyers, and Honda knows it.

TVS Jupiter 125 SmartXonnect is TVS going all-in on being the feature king. The 33-litre under-seat storage is genuinely insane for this segment, and 60+ connected features sounds like marketing fluff until you actually use the weather alerts and voice navigation on a Pune monsoon morning.

TVS NTORQ 125 XT is for the person who wants a sporty scooter but isn’t ready to spend 150cc money. The most powerful 125cc on this list with an honest 10.2 BHP, proper race-inspired styling, and two riding modes. It’s fun. That’s its whole pitch.

Vespa SXL 125 Racing Sixties is for people who’ve decided they don’t want a scooter that looks like every other scooter in the parking lot. The full steel monocoque body, the retro design, the Racing Sixties livery: Vespa exists in its own category and doesn’t really apologize for the price premium it commands.

TVS NTORQ 150 TFT is arguably the most interesting launch in this list. TVS took the NTORQ platform, dropped in a 150cc motor, added a 5-inch TFT display borrowed from the Apache RTR 310, threw in traction control and ABS, and priced it aggressively. It’s a genuine performance scooter that costs less than most people expect.

Yamaha Aerox 155 is what happens when you take Yamaha’s motorsport DNA seriously. Liquid-cooled engine with Variable Valve Actuation (the same VVA tech in Yamaha’s R-series bikes), a proper maxi-scooter stance, and a riding experience that genuinely rewards throttle input in a way most scooters don’t. The Aerox is for riders, not commuters.

Hero Xoom 160 is the dark horse. Hero quietly launched this thing with a liquid-cooled 156cc engine making 14.81 BHP, the most powerful engine in this entire comparison. It’s newer and doesn’t have the brand history of the others, but on paper, it’s a monster.

Full Specs Comparison: No Cherry Picking

* Prices are indicative on-road estimates for major Indian metros (mid-2026). On-road prices vary by city due to differences in road tax and registration charges. Expect a variation of +/- ₹5,000 depending on your city.

Tech & Features: Where the Real Differentiation Happens

Honestly, this is the section that matters most in 2026. Scooters in the same cubic-capacity band have very similar power outputs: the 125cc quartet is all within 2 BHP of each other. What separates them is the software and features layer, and in that department the gap between these seven is surprisingly large.

A few things stand out in that table. The Vespa’s lack of any Bluetooth or smart features at ₹1.45 lakh on-road is genuinely hard to justify on a features-per-rupee basis. You’re paying for the brand and the chassis quality, and you need to make peace with that before buying it. The Vespa doesn’t care about features. It never has, and that’s both its biggest weakness and its most authentic quality.

The NTORQ 150’s traction control and crash alert deserve a special mention. At around ₹1.40 lakh on-road, you’re getting ABS, traction control with multiple sensitivity levels, and a system that automatically alerts an emergency contact if the scooter detects a crash. That’s genuinely impressive for the price, and it’s the kind of safety tech that makes this scooter stand out for longer highway-adjacent rides. Think Pune-Lonavala, Delhi-Murthal, the Bangalore-Nandi Hills stretch, or Chennai-Mahabalipuram on a Sunday morning.

The Jupiter’s weather and rain alerts sound gimmicky until the first time you’re heading out after work and your scooter tells you there’s heavy rain coming in 20 minutes in your direction. Whether that’s FC Road in Pune, Koramangala in Bangalore, or Karol Bagh in Delhi, a heads-up like that is genuinely useful. After that, you start to get it.

Real Ownership Costs: Because the Sticker Price Isn’t the Full Story

The Activa’s service network advantage isn’t just a talking point. Whether you’re in Pune, Delhi, Lucknow, Coimbatore, or a smaller town like Talegaon, Rohtak, or Nellore, Honda dealers are simply everywhere. TVS and Yamaha have good coverage in major metros, but Honda’s depth in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities is on another level entirely. That matters the one time you need a service or breakdown support somewhere unexpected.

The Vespa’s higher service cost is worth addressing directly because it’s the elephant in the room. Piaggio-trained mechanics and genuine Vespa parts are more expensive than what you’d spend at a TVS or Honda ASC. Over three years of ownership, that gap between a Vespa and an Activa in running costs could easily add up to ₹15,000–20,000. Whether that’s worth it depends entirely on how much the ownership experience matters to you, and for some people, it genuinely does.

The 125cc vs 150cc Question: More Important Than You Think

This is where a lot of buyers go wrong. They see the NTORQ 150 at ₹1.40 lakh and think “it’s only ₹15,000 more than the NTORQ 125, why not upgrade?” And for a confident, experienced rider, that’s completely valid. But the jump from a 125cc to a 150cc+ scooter isn’t just about horsepower numbers on paper; it changes the entire character of the machine.

The 125cc scooters in this list (Jupiter, Activa, NTORQ 125 and Vespa) are designed to be predictable and forgiving. They have gentle power delivery, lighter clutch-free CVT responses, and limits that a new rider reaches slowly and safely. You can make a mistake at 50 km/h on a 125 and usually recover. At 85 km/h on an Aerox with its VVA engine suddenly kicking in, the same mistake is a much more serious situation.

The Aerox 155 S also sits taller than all the 125cc options here: the 790mm seat height means shorter riders (below 5’4″) will find themselves on tiptoes at stops, which gets exhausting in stop-and-go city traffic. The Hero Xoom 160 at 142.5 kg is the heaviest in this comparison by a meaningful margin. That weight becomes very real when you’re doing a U-turn in a tight lane on a Monday morning.

The Honest Take on Each Scooter

Honda Activa 125 H-Smart

The Activa is the Toyota Camry of Indian scooters: not the most exciting thing in the world, but deeply competent, maddeningly reliable, and sells in numbers that would embarrass most scooters. The H-Smart variant finally brings Honda into the connected features era with a proper 4.2-inch TFT display and Honda RoadSync, which handles navigation, call alerts, and music control cleanly.

At 107 kg, it’s the lightest scooter in this comparison, the easiest to maneuver, has the lowest seat height, the best resale value, and Honda’s dealer network across India is unmatched. We’re talking 6,000+ service centres spread from Chandigarh to Chennai, Kolkata to Kochi. You’ll find a Honda ASC in cities, in smaller towns, and often in places where the next TVS or Yamaha dealer is 30 km away. If you’re a first-time rider or someone who does 30-40 km daily commutes and just wants a scooter to work flawlessly for five years, the Activa 125 H-Smart is still the answer. It doesn’t try to be exciting. It just never lets you down.

TVS Jupiter 125 SmartXonnect

TVS has packed more features into the Jupiter than any other 125cc scooter, and the 33-litre under-seat storage genuinely deserves all the attention it gets. Put two full-face helmets in there. It fits. That alone settles the “where do I keep the extra helmet” problem for every daily rider carrying a pillion.

The SmartXonnect platform is genuinely impressive: weather and rain alerts, voice navigation, find-my-vehicle, and social media notifications mean your scooter is more connected than some budget smartphones. The 5-year/50,000km warranty is the best in this list. If you want maximum features and practicality from a 125cc scooter, this is it.

TVS NTORQ 125 XT

There are riders who buy scooters to commute and riders who buy scooters to ride. The NTORQ 125 XT is aimed firmly at the second group. It has 10.2 BHP, meaningfully more than its 125cc peers, with Street and Race riding modes and a design that makes it look like a proper sports scooter rather than a practical appliance. For weekend rides to Lavasa outside Pune, the Nandi Hills from Bangalore, Damdama Lake from Delhi, or the ECR road from Chennai, the NTORQ 125 XT will put a smile on your face in a way the Jupiter probably won’t. The trade-off is lower mileage and less storage.

Vespa SXL 125 Racing Sixties

You cannot rationally justify buying a Vespa in 2026 if you’re comparing spreadsheets. Less storage than everything else, more expensive than comparable options, fewer smart features, and a service network that’s thinner than the others. And yet, it’s made of steel, it’s beautiful, it draws stares without trying, and riding one feels different in a way that’s genuinely hard to articulate without sounding like a lifestyle magazine. Piaggio even manufactures these at their Baramati plant near Pune, which is a nice piece of local trivia. If style and the quality of the ownership experience matter to you beyond pure utility, Vespa earns its price. Just go in with open eyes about the ownership costs.

TVS NTORQ 150 TFT

This is the most interesting value proposition in the list. Traction control and ABS at ₹1.40 lakh on-road, a 5-inch TFT display, crash and theft alerts, quad LED projector headlamps, and a 150cc engine with two ride modes. The NTORQ 150 TFT is what happens when TVS takes everything they learned from the Apache series and applies it to the scooter segment. For a confident rider who does some Pune–Lonavala or weekend ghat runs, this is possibly the best all-around choice on this list. The safety tech package alone makes it worth serious consideration.

Yamaha Aerox 155 S

The Aerox 155 S is genuinely fun to ride fast, and that’s the beginning and the end of its pitch. The liquid-cooled engine with Yamaha’s Variable Valve Actuation technology means the power delivery is smooth and progressive; it doesn’t feel like a 125 pretending to be bigger, it feels like a real performance machine. The 14-inch wheels add stability at higher speeds compared to the 12-inch wheels on smaller scooters. It’s the best scooter here for anyone who already knows they enjoy riding and wants something that rewards the throttle. It is not the right first scooter for most people.

Hero Xoom 160

The Xoom 160 is the newest entrant and on paper makes some very bold claims. The most powerful engine in this comparison at 14.81 BHP, a liquid-cooled 156cc motor, 14-inch wheels, and aggressive pricing. The caveat is its 142.5 kg kerb weight, which puts it nearly 20 kg heavier than the Activa and 16 kg heavier than the Aerox. That weight shows in city traffic. It also doesn’t yet have the ownership data, the established service network depth, or the resale track record of its more established competitors. It’s worth watching. Hero has the manufacturing scale to make this a serious long-term contender, but there’s a “wait and see” quality to recommending it right now.

The Final Verdict: Who Should Actually Buy What