After launching the Chetak electric scooter in January 2020 in India, Bajaj applied for a design patent in Europe and now the company has been awarded the same.
Bajaj applied with the European Union Intellectual Property Office, on 28 February 2020. The application has been approved and will be valid till 28th February 2025. The Bajaj Chetak was launched in India in two variants – Urbane priced at Rs 1 lakh and Premium priced at Rs 1.15 lakh ex-showroom. The Chetak is available in Pune and Bangalore and deliveries began in the month of March before business was interrupted by the COVID-19 nation-wide lockdown.
It was reported that Bajaj Auto had turned down the request to sell the Chetak electric scooter in Europe (through KTM) this year as the focus of the company was to get a grip on India before expanding. Separately, Huqvarna is developing two versions of the Chetak scooter for its application (4 kW and 11 kW versions) that are to be manufactured in India next year.
Though Bajaj has begun production of its other models after the lockdown restrictions were eased, it hasn’t started the production of Chetak. Even before the lockdown in India, part supplies including those from Wuhan, China were interrupted because of the Chinese lockdown. Bajaj is now concentrating on completing deliveries of their current orders before reopening bookings and the plans to expand the electric scooter’s availability to other cities are also on hold. The Chetak is powered by a 3 kWh battery that offers a range of up to 95 km in the Eco mode and 85 km in the Sport mode. The scooter can be charged to full capacity in five hours.
A 4 kW electric motor drives the scooter and produces a peak torque of 16 Nm. Features include an LED headlamp, split LED tail lamps, digital instrument cluster, illuminated switchgear, front disc brake, USB charging port and a reverse mode. The Chetak comes with a 3 year or 50,000 km warranty and three free services.
