Just a few hours after the new entry-level Chetak Urbane's pricing details emerged, we have got our hands on some exclusive information pertaining to the updated Chetak Premium that will be launched very soon.
- Premium will get 3.2kWh battery pack, 127km IDC range
- New TFT dash will be available on "Tecpac" variant
- Price likely to go up marginally
Bajaj seems to be addressing all the shortcomings of the Chetak Premium in one fell swoop with this update. Let’s start with the most impactful one: the battery. The updated Chetak Premium will get a 3.2kWh battery with a claimed IDC range of 127km, which is a significant step up from the current model’s 2.88kWh unit and 108km range figure. With this step up in battery capacity, charging time has also risen, albeit not by a great deal. A 0-100 percent charge will now take 4 hours 30 minutes – an increase of just half an hour.
The Chetak has proven to be quite efficient in our range tests and we got over 100km on a single charge in Eco mode, so expect this updated model to have a similar improvement in real-world range.
Another area where the Chetak fell short of its rivals was its 63kph top speed. To remedy that, the updated model has a higher 73kph top speed. Currently, it isn't known if any changes have been made to the motor to achieve this.
With just about every EV on the market offering a TFT dash (some even incorporating touch functionality), the Chetak’s rather simple LCD display was feeling a little out of place, especially at its asking price. With this update, the Chetak Premium will finally get a TFT dash with Bluetooth connectivity and will incorporate features such as turn-by-turn navigation, music playback, a tyre pressure monitoring system and remote immobilisation. All these features can be accessed by pairing your smartphone to the dash via the Chetak app.
Last but not least, Bajaj has also endowed the updated Chetak Premium with a bigger underseat storage area. The capacity has risen from 18 litres to 21 litres, and while that doesn’t seem like a very big increase, we are given to understand that it will now be easier to fit a helmet in there.
Considering that the Chetak Premium is getting its first comprehensive update since its launch, expect prices to go up to reflect that.
Azaman Chothia
Vishal Venugopal
