First 1 lakh sales took four years, but the next lakh came up in the last eight months.
The Bajaj Chetak electric scooter has crossed the 2 lakh-unit sales milestone in India, and recorded its highest monthly sales yet of 16,691 units in June 2024.
- Chetak was initially sold only out of KTM showrooms
- Now available in three variants – 2901, Urbane and Premium
- Chetak dealer network to expand to 600 showrooms
While sales till March 2023 were slow, demand only took off in FY2024. The Chetak was launched two months before the world, and the automotive industry, were brought to a grinding halt by the COVID-19 pandemic. The EV scooter was initially sold from KTM showrooms and was confined to just two cities – Pune and Bengaluru. So customer offtake was understandably slow. The sales in the first 15 months was just 1,587 units. While FY2022 saw total sales of 8,187 units, Chetak numbers rose to 31,485 units last fiscal year.
Bajaj Auto overhauled the Chetak line-up stem to stern with the launch of two new variants – the base 2901 (Rs 95,998), the mid-tier Urbane (Rs 1.23 lakh) and the revamped range-topping Premium variant (Rs 1.47 lakh).
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Bajaj Auto is placed second in the electric two-wheeler market ahead of Ather Energy. On the retail front, Ola Electric, which is not listed in SIAM member companies, remains the market leader by far.
In FY2024, as per SIAM wholesales data, the Bajaj Chetak sold 1,15,627 units, ahead of Ather Energy (1,07,894 units) by 7,733 units and less than TVS Motor Co (1,89,896 units) by 74,269 units. Bajaj Auto has had a strong opening quarter in FY2025 with 40,854 Chetaks sold, up 96 percent YoY (April-June 2023: 20,834 units). The gap with the TVS iQube (Q1 FY2025: 49,164 units) is currently down to just 8,310 units.
On the first half of CY2024’s retail sales, Bajaj Auto has achieved strong gains – Vahan data says 66,512 Chetaks were sold in the January-June 2024 period. The company maintains its No. 3 ranking in retail sales after Ola Electric and TVS Motor Co. Its January-June figures give the Pune-based company a market share of 13 percent, more than doubling its 5.51 percent share in H1 2023.
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The increased demand for the Chetak is reflected from the fact that the last 1 lakh sales in the domestic market have come in just eight months, from November 2023 through to June 2024 (1,01,962 units) with the highest monthly sales of 16,691 units in June 2024. In comparison, the first 1 lakh units took 48 months or four years.
What is giving the Chetak new verve in the market is ramped-up production and a growing dealer network, which is to expand from its existing 164 cities and 200 touchpoints to around 600 showrooms in the next three to four months.
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