Johnson D’souza

The most iconic mopeds back in the day, the Bajaj Chetak, is now making a comeback on Indian roads. And it is coming back with an all-new brand identity, and a better-looking scooter, and is hoping the country to gravitate towards it while going ‘Humara Bajaj’.

You must be wondering as to how eco-friendly? Well, the Chetak is now going to be all-electric, while keeping the power train of the normal scooters in the market, and also offering it a lot cheaper than its competitor the Ather. It looks as classy as the Vespas you see on the roads, with some nice glossy and shiny paint finishes, and a touch of chrome here and there giving it its necessary class. The look of the Chetak now is a bit sized down from the older ones, and the edges have been smoothened out for it to exuberate that contemporary design.

Talking about variants, the Chetak is going to come in two variants, a base called the Bajaj Chetak Urbane which will cost Rs 1 Lakh, and a Bajaj Chetak Premium, which will start at Rs 1.15 lakh.

Powering the new Chetak electric scooter is a 4kW motor that develops 16 Nm of peak torque. It comes with an IP67-rated 3kWh (48V, 60.3 AH) lithium-ion battery, which can be charged using a 15 amp electrical outlet. The battery can be fully juiced up in five hours and up to 25 per cent in an hour. The charger is complimentary and it will be installed at the customer's house. The claimed battery life is 70,000 km.

According to Bajaj Auto, the new Chetak's range is 95 km in the Eco mode and 85 km in the Sport mode. Bajaj Chetak comes with an overall warranty of three years or 50,000 km. The scheduled service is at an interval of one year or 12,000 km. The two-wheeler maker is providing three free services with the electric scooter.

The scooter is one of the first electric bikes that have been rolled out by the company and Bajaj Plans on exporting them to some European markets as well. On the Bike, the writing, Bajaj, or its logo has been dropped as the manufacturers wanted the Chetak to be a standalone electric bike in the market.