2026 Honda SH125i revealed: Best-seller scooter gets smart upgrades
Marking 25 years of the SH125, Honda sharpens its city-focused scooters with added tech, refined styling, and lower-impact materials.
Honda has given its evergreen SH scooter range a light but notable refresh for 2026, marking 25 years since the arrival of the SH125 and SH150 while quietly reinforcing the model family’s place as one of Europe’s most recognisable urban runabouts.
Designed and built in Italy, the big-wheel SH scooters have long been a familiar sight weaving through city traffic across the continent. The SH125i, in particular, remains a consistent top seller, shifting more than 20,000 units every year since 2020. That number underlines just how firmly the model is embedded in the commuter landscape, if not in the UK, further into Europe.
For 2026, the SH125i and SH150i get a handful of updates focused on cleaner styling, extra technology, and a greater use of sustainable materials rather than any wholesale reinvention.
Tech and design tweaks for 2026
The latest versions gain a 4.2-inch colour TFT display alongside Honda’s RoadSync smartphone connectivity, while full LED lighting remains standard. The styling itself has been pared back slightly, with Honda’s Rome-based R&D team aiming for a more minimal look without straying too far from the silhouette that has defined the SH for decades.
Sustainability also creeps further up the agenda. Following the introduction of the semi-transparent ‘Vetro’ variants — which cut CO2 output during manufacturing by using unpainted fairings — the new models adopt more environmentally conscious materials for parts, including the rear plate carrier and the exhaust muffler cover. This is part of a wider move from Honda to minimise CO2 production during the manufacturing process, and follows the extensive use of Durabio in other models in the wider Honda range.
The 2025 update to the SH is more evolution rather than revolution, which is exactly how Honda tends to treat models that already sell in big numbers.
You may also like to read this article covering which Honda bikes use Durabio.
Four decades in the making
The SH story actually stretches back further than many riders might realise. The original SH50 (seen top image - right side) arrived in 1984 as a 49 cc two-stroke built in Belgium, pitched squarely at urban riders thanks to its compact footprint and flat floor.
Production later shifted to Spain, where Montesa Honda developed a 75cc version tailored to local regulations before adding another 50cc model aimed at younger riders. It was during this period that the scooter picked up the nickname “Scoopy”, a name that still carries weight in some markets today. By the time Spanish production wrapped up in 1996, more than 106,000 SH50s and over 27,000 SH75s had rolled off the production line.
Manufacturing then moved to Honda’s Atessa factory in Italy, a decision that placed production closer to one of Europe’s biggest scooter markets. The second-generation SH50 launched alongside a larger SH100, offering the same practicality with a useful bump in performance.
The SH, as most riders know it today, really took shape in 2001 with the arrival of the SH125 and SH150. Upright, easy to manage, and rolling on a confidence-inspiring 16-inch front wheel, the pair quickly built a reputation for low running costs and everyday usability, with combined braking for safety and fuel economy hovering around the 70 mpg mark. Fuel injection was introduced in 2005 to meet tighter emissions regulations, while the larger SH300i arrived in 2007, extending the scooter’s capabilities beyond short city trips and positioning it in maxi-scooter territory.
A more meaningful overhaul came in 2012. New eSP engines, a redesigned frame with improved storage, ABS, and idle stop sharpened the package, before the SH Mode 125 joined two years later to attract younger riders with a simpler take on urban transport. Updates have largely been incremental since then, including the lower-impact ‘Vetro’ variants and engine tweaks to satisfy EURO5+ regulations.
The numbers explain why Honda hasn’t strayed far from the script. By 2017, more than one million SH scooters had been built at Atessa. The range now accounts for roughly a third of the plant’s output, and over 264,000 SH125i models have been sold in Europe since 2012 alone. Nearly 60,000 SH models found homes in 2025, underlining steady demand for a scooter that has spent four decades refining, rather than reinventing, the big-wheel, small-capacity mobility segment.
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Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
