Bajaj Auto recently unveiled the all-new Chetak, marking its re-entry into the scooter business after almost two decades. This new Chetak may be inspired from Bajaj's widely sold Chetak scooter of the yesteryears, but will now come in an electric avatar. While this scooter will be launched in India in January, plans are already afoot to share the platform with sports bike maker KTM and Husqvarna.
Bajaj Auto holds a 48 per cent stake in Austria's KTM. Husqvarna was acquired by KTM in 2013. Speaking with reporters in Pune on Thursday, Rajiv Bajaj, the managing director of Bajaj Auto said that the electric scooter platform could in future be used by both the brands.
"Being a global company, everything we do is with a global perspective, which means we must be able to address all markets around the world and the best way to do that is to build platforms, which are modular, flexible and can be leveraged by different brands. One of several strengths we are going to have going forward is that we can use this platform for both KTM and Husqvarna scooters. My counterpart Stefan Pierer (who is the CEO of KTM) has already spoken about this and there is already product development underway," Bajaj said.
In India, Chetak is being launched for an audience who wants new technology but also has some fond memories of riding the original Chetak as a child along with their parents back in the 1980s and 90s. As the company puts it, the Chetak will be quiet, clean, comfortable and convenient to ride, with an elegant yet understated design. However, when the same platform is used by sports bike maker KTM, it could draw from the Austrian company's racing DNA. The Husqvarna brand, in turn, could offer more of a 'cool image' in line with its own Scandinavian legacy.
"We will have different brands to carve up this electric vehicle space into very smart niches and progressively you will see us roll this out over the next few years," Bajaj said.
The Chetak electric scooter will also be sold through the KTM dealerships in India. Bajaj Auto currently exports to over 70 countries and has begun an exercise to identify markets where the Chetak could also be launched, apart from the platform sharing with KTM.
"Just like we sell the Pulsar brand overseas, the Platina brand overseas, Chetak will go overseas, no question about it. We start with one market. We will start with India and then take it overseas. We are in the process of identifying the markets," said Eric Vas, president, Urbanite business, Bajaj Auto.
Chetak may be one of the first of the big brands to launch a mainstream electric scooter in India. But, it is certainly not the first. Startup Ather Energy launched its e-scooter in 2018. Another startup Ultraviolette unveiled the F77 electric motorcycle on Wednesday, while in August, the Revolt RV 400 electric motorcycle was launched.
Bajaj admits that traditional automobile manufacturers have been relatively slow in entering and launching electric vehicles, but things are changing.
"Every manufacturer, including Bajaj Auto, we have so much vested interest not in a bad sense, just in a factual sense; that in our research and development skills, if we have 1,200 people in R&D, 95 per cent of them, their skills are on ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles. Then there are suppliers. This is a question in everybody's mind that if tomorrow everything becomes electric, what happens to us...That is why there is a reluctance on the part of existing incumbents to move quickly in this direction," he said.
Bajaj Auto will continue to make ICE powered motorcycles and three-wheelers, which will remain its bread and butter. However, it will also continue to explore and invest in new technologies.
Electric vehicle adoption in India has been slow, mainly due to lack of widespread charging infrastructure. Bajaj feels that once more products are launched, the charging infrastructure will also follow.
"We should not get caught in this vicious cycle of chicken and egg. No one is going to put up the infrastructure for anything, unless they actually see the demand on the road in the first place. It is squarely the job of the manufacturer, not of the government or Niti Aayog, but our job that we have to put out vehicles," said Bajaj.
Bookings for the Chetak will start in January 2020, and deliveries are also expected to start soon after. It will be first launched in Pune, its home market, followed by Bengaluru, which is the largest market for EVs in India today.
At the heart of the Chetak will be a lithium ion battery, which can be charged via a normal electric plug point in around five hours. The company claims a range of 95 km on a full charge. There are no plans to offer fast-charging technology for now, as officials say fast charging reduces battery life faster. The company is also not disclosing the pricing just yet. However, it is expected to be aggressively priced in the Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.50 lakh range.
