Making a foray into electric vehicles, Bajaj Auto unveiled its new electric mobility brand ‘Urbanite’ with the launch of its first electric scooter, the Bajaj Chetak. This is the company’s comeback to scooters, a decade after it stopped making scooters to focus purely on motorcycles.
The new Bajaj Chetak will be available from January 2020, first in Pune, then Bengaluru, and then in other cities across the country. However, the brand Urbanite will see more scooters and even three-wheelers being launched.
The scooter has been designed and developed in-house and has been designed to resemble the original Chetak, which was an extremely popular geared scooter in the 1960s and 70s.
The new Bajaj Chetak will be available in two variants and offer a range of 85 kilometres and 95 kilometres. The battery on the scooter will be an IP67 rated high-tech Lithium-Ion battery with NCA cells, which will offer an in-city range of up to 100 km.
The company also revealed that the Chetak will come with an Intelligent Battery Management System that controls the charge and discharge seamlessly.
The bike also comes with advanced algorithms with edge computing that can evolve and optimise everything from throttle response to battery charging to extract maximum life from every electric, mechanical and chemical part of the vehicle.
It also comes in two driving modes: Eco and Sport along with reverse assist. The Chetak will also be fully connected, where riders can access information such as locating their Bajaj Chetak scooter, protecting it from theft and also receive notifications in case of an accident or unauthorised access. One can also set their music and read helpful riding tips from a connected device.
The vehicle will be sold from Bajaj’s Pro Biking dealerships which also sell the KTM bike.
The price of the Chetak has not been revealed yet. However, the company said at the launch that it will be priced attractively, which will be revealed closer to its commercial launch.