With launch of affordable variants and availability across 400+ cities, Bajaj Chetak has been witnessing a strong surge in sales
As Chetak’s popularity soars, Bajaj is looking to introduce some new updates to its e-scooter range. It will help maintain the sales momentum and improve overall customer experience.
Chetak scooters to get a range boost
Bajaj had recently launched a new Chetak 3201 Special Edition scooter. It is being sold exclusively on Amazon. It was offered at an introductory price of Rs 1.29 lakh. Although the Chetak 3201 Special Edition scooter has the same 3.2 kWh battery as the Chetak Premium variant, it has a higher range of 136 km. In comparison, the Premium variant offers a range of 126 km.
A higher range for Chetak 3201 Special Edition is because the scooter is using new battery cells. These are more energy-dense and offer higher overall efficiency. The new battery cells are being procured from a new supplier. With the improved battery cells, Chetak 3201 Special Edition has a higher range. Even though the battery capacity remains the same as the Premium variant. The new battery cells will eventually be introduced for all Chetak variants.
New variant names likely
With the entire Chetak range expected to get the improved battery cells, Bajaj can also introduce changes to the existing nomenclature. For example, the base variant, Chetak 2901, gets the 2901 suffix from its 2.9 kWh battery pack. The ‘29’ denotes the first two digits of the battery capacity. And the ‘01’ indicates the first variant to use this new naming convention. If the same nomenclature is followed for other variants, Premium and Urbane could get the 3201 and 3202 suffix, respectively.
It remains to be seen if switching to the new battery cells will bring down the prices of Chetak electric scooters. Globally, the EV battery prices have been falling consistently with production reaching economies of scale. If new Chetak variants can have a higher range, all while offering reduced pricing, it can have a significant impact on sales.
As of now, the most affordable variant is the Chetak 2901, priced at Rs 95,998 (ex.sh Bengaluru). Next is Chetak Urbane, priced at Rs 1,23,319. Chetak Premium variant is available at Rs 1,47,243. The 3201 Special Edition is being offered at Rs 1.40 lakh.
Strong sales
Chetak has made rapid gains over the last 12 months and is currently ranked as the 3rd best selling electric scooter in the country. It is ahead of rivals such as Ather Energy, Hero MotoCorp, Greaves Electric Mobility and BGAUSS Auto. With more range to offer, Chetak can deliver even better results in the future. While Ola Electric leads by a significant margin, Chetak has potential to catch up with TVS iQube that currently stands at second position in the electric 2-wheeler segment.
As of now, there are more than 200,000 Chetak electric scooters on the roads. Till date, the Chetak fleet has covered a total of 2.28 billion kms. Reduction in CO2 emissions has been a whopping 17.29Mn kgs.
Source
Source: Bike - rushlane.com
