Two days after Bajaj Motors MD Rajiv Bajaj took a dig at Electric Vehicle (EV) startups for trying to make EVs without having prior automotive manufacturing experience, the desi brand’s newly-revealed electric Chetak has earned flak from Tata Motors vice-president of design, who suggested it was a rip-off of the Piaggio Vespa.
Replying to a comment on Twitter about Bajaj’s return to making scooters, Pratap Bose said the new design was “Very Vespa as well. Missed opportunity to do something more unique :( Wonder what @Piaggio_Group will have to say about this.”
Earlier, he replied to Rajiv’s comments on the attempts of other EV manufacturers, saying, “Interesting coming from someone who has ripped off a VESPA.” Bose added that it was a “sad day” for Indian design and that he had worked at Piaggio when he started out as a designer. “I’ve seen the sweat and toil of the design team there who painstakingly ‘curate’ the design of the Vespa. This isn’t right. There was an opportunity to do something unique here.”
Bose had just won the Design Icon Award by the India Design Forum at the Hyderabad Design Week. Bajaj Motors have yet to respond to Bose’s comments.
Rajiv Bajaj had made his comments on October 16, saying "It is to our amazement how people who have spent their whole life making batteries or motors or just plain steel, suddenly want to put a coat on their stuff and manufacture electric vehicles as if it happens just with the click of your fingers, but at least they are manufacturers".
He added that "...you will be more amazed to see how sometimes people, who have done nothing but imported air conditioners, mobiles and refrigerators from China suddenly want to revolutionise our roads by making EVs out of thin air.”
“So, when all these people talk about future, he said, "I prefer to start with our past that we are not a battery or steel maker, we are not a failed two-wheeler company and we are not a venture capitalist company who fund someone else to manufacture for us, we are engineers who do our own work," Bajaj said.
The launch of the electric Chetak comes 13 years after production ceased for the original Chetak scooter which made Bajaj a household name. The electric Chetak comes under Bajaj’s Urbanite brand, a vertical focussing on EV development.
The retro styling on the Chetak comes from its curved side panels and front apron.
Interestingly, the trend of taking a retro design and adding an electric motor has grown popular amongst amateur modders in the United States, where a garage industry has spawned making ‘retro-electric’ cars, converting everything from Ford Mustangs to Volkswagen Beetle’s into electric cars by adding Tesla engines or the like.
Auto manufacturers have also taken a cue from the retro styling craze. The Honda EV, unveiled in September, also features retro styling, as does the Kia EV (albeit with a space-age twist).
