Remember the nostalgic Bajaj advertise in 80’s ? The “Humara Bajaj” has now returned in new avatar and its now fully electric. Country’s second largest motorcycle manufacturer Bajaj announced the launch of its electric scooter — Chetak.
With this the company has entered into the second innings in the scooter segment, almost after a decade’s gap.
As of now there is no word on the price of the electric version of the electric scooter.
Nitin Gadkari and Amitabh Kant were present at the launch of the electric scooter.
Amitabh Kant on twitter said “Delighted to be a part of the launch of Bajaj’s electric Chetak scooter launch with Minister @nitin_gadkari. India has the potential to be the global manufacturing hub for EV 2W & 3W. Bajaj has taken lead. It’s engineering skills will make it a global Champ! Congrats Rajiv Bajaj !”
Bajaj completely shifted its focus from the traditional scooters to Motorcycles in around 2009.
All new electric Chetak will be available in two variants and offer a range of 85 kilometre and 95 kilometre.
Rajiv Bajaj, managing director Bajaj Auto in a statement said there is immense potential for scooters and three-wheelers in the electric space.
He added “When we do something it’s better to come first and there is virtually no point coming second or third. It’s very important to be first to market. Scooters and step-through are a very important segment and we have not made the electric Chetak to be in the volume space. We are trying build meaningful niches with three wheelers, super bikes and electric scooters.”
The company will start the sale of thesee electric scooters in January next year from Pune and will later shift to Bangalore.
The vehicle will also be sold from the Pro Biking dealerships of the company from which it also sells the KTM superbikes.
“Biggest hurdle (for the adoption of electric mobility) is the conflicting idea in the minds of manufacturers since they are making money from petrol and diesel vehicles. The fact that Bajaj doesn’t sell scooters is our bigger strength. We are starting here because there is no conflict of interest. When you enter into a new market you don’t make money from day one. The price will not be viable from day one,” Bajaj said.