While the Bajaj Chetak has clocked sales of 1,723 units in the first four months of FY2022 as against 1,395 units last financial year.The TVS iQube has gone home to 1,486 buyers as against 1,061 in FY2021.
Longstanding Internal Combustion engine players Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor Co, which have plugged into the India electric mobility story, are witnessing an increase in demand for their e-scooters. Interestingly, both companies launched their products – the Bajaj Chetak and TVS iQube – in January 2020.
Sales figures of both e-scooters in the first four months of FY2022 (April-July 2021) has crossed the sales they did in all of FY2021. This is enough proof of the strong demand for these two products With eight months of the ongoing financial year still to go, both products are headed for record sales. What's more surprising is that these sales figures are from the limited regions they are selling the scooter in.
Bajaj Auto, which launched the Chetak on January 14, 2020, has sold 3,330 units until July-end. This total comprises 212 units in FY2020, 1,395 units in FY2021 and 1,723 units in the first four months (April-July 2021) of FY2022.
Bajaj sells the Chetak only in Pune, Bangalore and more recently in Nagpur, where it has an ex-showroom price starting Rs 1,42,998. The Chetak EV is sold in two variants – Premium and Urbane and has three riding modes including reverse.
The Chetak gets fully charged in five hours with a 60-minute quick charge juicing up 25 percent of the battery. The Chetak is manufactured at Bajaj's Chakan plant and delivers a range of 90km in Eco Mode.
Meanwhile, the TVS iQube, which was launched on January 25, 2020, has sold a total of 2,609 units until the end of July 2021. This comprises 62 units in FY2020, 1,061 units in FY2021 and 1,486 units in April-July 2021.
Following the revision in subsidy under the FAME II Scheme earlier this year by the government, TVS revised the iQube Electric’s pricing and it now costs Rs 11,250 less. From the earlier Rs 1,12,027 in New Delhi, the eco-friendly scooter now costs Rs 1,00,777. And in Bangalore, the pricing has reduced from 1,21,756 to Rs 1,10,506.
Powering the iQube is a 4.4kW electric motor that propels the scooter to a claimed top speed of 78kph with a 0-40kph time of 4.2 seconds. TVS also claims that the iQube can cover 75km on a full charge. The scooter has two riding modes – economy and power – and comes with regenerative braking. The battery on the iQube cannot be removed.
The TVS iQube is equipped with a ‘next-gen TVS SmartXonnect platform’ that includes a TFT instrument cluster and the TVS iQube app. Both these enable the user to access features such as geo-fencing, remote battery charge status, navigation assist, last park location and incoming call alerts/SMS alerts, among others.
With skyhigh petrol prices and several Indian states making moves to become EV-friendly, both the Bajaj Chetak and TVS iQube should continue to see robust demand in the coming months. They, no doubt, have competition but what clicks in their favour is the strong brand, reliable aftersales support and an expanding market launch strategy.
Vishal Venugopal
Ved Janve
Azaman Chothia
