Bajaj Chetak EVs to get new battery cells with more range

The Bajaj Chetak has gone from being one of the slower-selling electric scooters in India to becoming the third best-selling scooter in less than 12 months. This surge is partly due to its increased reach across the country and partly because of the introduction of new, more affordable variants. Autocar India has now unearthed exclusive information that the Chetak line-up will use new battery cells from a different supplier, which will result in an increased range.

Earlier this month, Bajaj launched a Chetak 3201 Special Edition scooter with the same 3.2 kWh battery capacity as the current Chetak Premium, but with a higher claimed range of 136km, as opposed to the Premium's 126km. While this flummoxed us initially, a little bit of digging revealed that the cells in the battery pack are now procured from a new supplier.

These new cells seem more efficient and energy-dense than those in the outgoing model, which explains why the range has increased despite the same battery capacity. 

With the transition to new cells, Bajaj will also be updating the nomenclature of its variants to a numerical one. For example, the base model, the Chetak 2901, is named for its 2.9 kWh battery pack (denoted by the first two digits) and is the first variant in the current line-up to use this configuration (denoted by the last two digits). Similarly, we anticipate that the Premium and Urbane variants will adopt a similar naming system, with 3201 and 3202 being the likely possibilities, respectively.

Currently, the Chetak Premium costs Rs 147,000, while the 3201 special edition is priced lower than that, at Rs 1.40 lakh. It remains to be seen if the shift to new cells will also result in a price reduction for the variants that adopt new cells for their updated battery packs. If this does happen, it could boost Chetak's success even further in the next few months, and it might not be long before it takes over second place in the EV scooter market from the TVS iQube. 

85,000 Chetaks sold in January-July 2024
In July, Bajaj Auto retailed 17,642 Chetaks, which makes for a 375% YoY increase on a low year-ago base (July 2023: 4,128 units). In the January-July 2024 period, Bajaj Auto sold a total of 84,225 Chetaks, 57,309 units more than the 26,916 units in the year-ago period and registering handsome growth of 213% YoY. This stellar performance gives Pune-based auto major a market share of 16.49%, a big jump over its 5.51% share in April-July 2023. This is thanks to a 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. 

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