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.
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.
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 January-June 2024 retail sales of 66,512 units give Bajaj Auto an e2W market share of 13%, more than doubling its 5.51% share in H1 2023.
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.
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.