The Bajaj Chetak was reborn as an electric scooter in 2020. (Image: Bajaj Auto)
The Bajaj Chetak was reborn as an electric scooter in 2020. (Image: Bajaj Auto)
The Bajaj Chetak, reborn as an all-electric scooter in 2020, has so far catered to a limited buyer base, considering it was only available in a handful of states.
However, in 2022, Bajaj will make the only scooter in its portfolio available in 11 more cities, including in the national capital. News9 can now confirm Bajaj will soon put the Chetak e-scooter on sale in New Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Kerala and Gujarat, as well as in more cities across Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, which were the only four states where the Chetak was available so far.
Names of the locations the Bajaj Chetak will shortly be available in include Mumbai and Nasik (Maharashtra), Coimbatore and Madurai (Tamil Nadu), Hubli (Karnataka), Vishakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Moti Nagar (New Delhi), Mapusa (Goa), Surat (Gujarat), Kochi and Kozhikode (Kerala).
Of all locations, it’s in Kozhikode where the Bajaj Chetak will be the most expensive, with an ex-showroom price of Rs 1,92,850 and on-road price of Rs 1,65,494 (after FAME-II subsidy), which is substantially higher than that of even the Ather 450X, among the priciest e-scooters one can buy in India today.
Meanwhile, the Bajaj Chetak’s on-road price in New Delhi will be Rs 1,53,732 (excluding state subsidy). Buyers in Mumbai will have to pay Rs 1,25,547 (on-road) for their Chetak, the price significantly lowered thanks to the additional state subsidy.
Last year, Bajaj discontinued the base Urbane variant of the Chetak electric scooter. Available in just two colours and fitted with a drum brake up front, the Chetak Urbane offered limited choices. With the Urbane being cheaper by only a few thousand rupees, most Chetak buyers ended up opting for the better-equipped Premium variant, following which Bajaj decided to pull the plug on the base model and retail the Chetak in a single variant.
The Chetak has a 3.8 kW/4.1 kW (continuous/peak power) electric motor and a 3 kWh lithium-ion battery. Range is 90 kilometres in Eco mode, and Bajaj says a full charge takes five hours. The Chetak’s battery comes with a three-year/50,000-kilometre warranty.
With Ather Energy pursuing an aggressive expansion strategy and Ola Electric ramping up production of the S1, a more feature-rich electric scooter with better performance and range at a lower price, progress for the Bajaj Chetak has been relatively slow. However, with competition set to further intensify with the entry of Hero MotoCorp in the coming months, Bajaj is preparing to go all in, and is already in the process of readying its EV plant in Akurdi (with an annual capacity of five lakh vehicles) to roll out the first model by June 2022.
