The Honda Dio was introduced in Japan in January 1988. The name is derived from the
son of Venus dyonisiac [ clarify ]. It is now manufactured and assembled in India by Honda's HMSI subsidiary, from where it is exported to UK as the Honda Lead. The Dio is equipped with cushioned seats and also a spacious under the seat storage box.
The Japanese Dio was equipped with the two-stroke 50 cc AF18E single-cylinder engine with electric start. It is superficially similar to the USA-only Honda Elite S.
Later versions in some markets were equipped with a 102 cc air-cooled, four-stroke , single-cylinder, OHC engine with both electric self-start and kick start . This model was not exported to the USA.
The Indian version has a 6-litre ( 1.3 imp gal; 1.6 US gal) fuel tank, of which one litre is reserve, and the Japanese version has a 4-litre ( 0.88 imp gal; 1.1 US gal) fuel tank with no reserve