Launched just before the pandemic struck, Bajaj Auto’s first electric scooter took four years to achieve 100,000 sales. The next 100,000 though have come in a scant eight months as a result of new variants and an expanded retail sales network, with June 2024’s 16,691 units its highest monthly dispatches yet.
20 Jul 2024 | 12464 Views | By Ajit Dalvi
The Bajaj Chetak, the reborn electric avatar of the iconic Chetak scooter which had got India motoring on two wheels all those many years ago, has clocked 200,000-unit sales in the domestic market. Launched on January 14, 2020, the zero-emission Chetak scooter has registered total wholesales of 202,590 units ...
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The Bajaj Chetak, the reborn electric avatar of the iconic Chetak scooter which had got India motoring on two wheels all those many years ago, has clocked 200,000-unit sales in the domestic market. Launched on January 14, 2020, the zero-emission Chetak scooter has registered total wholesales of 202,590 units till end-June 2024 (see data table below). What’s more, it has recorded its highest monthly sales yet in June 2024 – 16,691 units.
While sales in the first 39 months till end-March 2023 were slow, demand took off only in FY2024. Launched two months before the world and the automotive industry were brought to a grinding halt by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Chetak's sales, conducted initially from KTM outlets, were confined to only two cities – Pune and Bengaluru – and understandably customer offtake was slow. First 15 months’ sales were just 1,587 units. While FY2022 saw total sales of 8,187 units, Chetak numbers rose by 284% YoY to 31,485 units albeit on a low year-ago base.
In FY2024 the Bajaj Chetak came into its own with total dispatches of 115,702 units, up 219% YoY, making the competition stand up and take notice. With an expanded network and ramped-up production, the Chetak averaged monthly sales of 9,641 units last fiscal, hitting the 100,000 sales milestone in November 2023.
CHETAK URBANE AND URBANE PREMIUM POWER SALES IN 2024
Bajaj Auto upped the ante in December 2023 and January 2024 with the launch of two new variants – the Chetak Urbane and the range-topping Urbane Premium. On January 5, 2024, the company introduced the updated range-topping 2024 Urbane Premium variant, currently priced at Rs 147,243 (ex-showroom Bengaluru). The most significant change is the new 3.2 kWh battery pack rated for a claimed IDC range of 127km on a single charge. The Chetak 2901 (Rs 95,998) and Urbane 2024 (Rs 123,319) are the two other variants.
While the base equipped with 2.88 kWh battery Chetak 2901 has a top speed of 63kph and 123km range, the Urbane with a 2.9 kWh battery hits 73kph and has a range of 113km. The top-end Urbane Premium has the largest battery (3.2kWh), a 73kph top speed and travels 126km on a single charge.
The Chetak Urbane utilises the same colour LCD display as the Premium variant. In standard form, the Urbane offers a 63kph top speed, and comes with only one riding mode – Eco. With the ‘Tecpac’ installed, top speed rises to 73kph and the user gets a Sport riding mode as well.
CHETAK'S RISING EV MARKET SHARE
Bajaj Auto, which is among the three legacy players and SIAM members along with TVS Motor Co and Hero MotoCorp to have plugged into e-mobility, is the firm No. 2 after TVS and ahead of Ather Energy. On the retail front, Ola Electric, which is not listed in SIAM member companies, remains the market leader by far.
In FY2024, as per SIAM wholesales data, the Bajaj Chetak sold 115,627 units, ahead of Ather Energy (107,894 units) by 7,733 units and below TVS Motor Co (189,896 units) by 74,269 units. Bajaj Auto has had a strong opening quarter in FY2025 and with 40,854 Chetaks sold, up 96% YoY (April-June 2023: 20,834 units), the gap with the TVS Qube (Q1 FY2025: 49,164 units) is currently down to just 8,310 units.
On the first-half CY2024 retail sales front, Bajaj Auto has achieved strong gains – as per Vahan data, with 66,512 Chetaks sold in the January-June 2024 period, the company maintains its No. 3 ranking after Ola Electric and TVS Motor Co. Its January-June retails give the Pune-based company a market share of 13%, more than doubling its 5.51% share in H1 2023.
The increased pace of demand for the Chetak is reflected from the fact that the last 100,000 sales in the domestic market have come in just eight months, from November 2023 through to June 2024 (101,962 units) with the highest monthly sales of 16,691 units in June 2024. The first 100,000 units had taken all of 48 months or four years.
What is giving the Chetak new verve in the market is the ramped-up production and a growing dealer network, which is to be expanded from its existing presence in 164 cities and 200 touchpoints to around 600 showrooms in the next three to four months. Bajaj Auto is also soon to further up the ante with the launch of a new mass-market e-scooter under the Chetak brand umbrella. Stay tuned in for more sales updates on the Chetak as well as other EVs, on two and more wheels.
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