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Chetak Technology Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bajaj Auto, says it will double its market presence from 40 to 85 towns in the next three months and will have 95 showrooms. Currently, it offers one product across its 62 stores and has overall sold around 30,000 vehicles to date.
“The main objective for increasing the network for people to have a touch-and-feel experience of the product. All showrooms would be Chetak-exclusive stores through a dealership model,” said Eric Vas, President, Urbanite. Additionally, the company has about 54 workshops in 43 towns, of which 90 percent are company-exclusive.
In January 2022, the company upgraded its existing product, Chetak 2403, to Chetak-2413, in which all the parts of the product — the design and software — are owned by the company. “While the vehicle looks exactly the same from the outside with the same performance on paper as before, it is the underlying technology that is different as the intellectual property and design of all the components are owned by Bajaj Auto,” explained Vas.
According to the company, the existing model is designed to appeal to what they refer to as the ‘mass premium consumer’ and hence, is priced accordingly at an ex-showroom price of ₹1,54,189. But reiterating the company chairman Rajiv Bajaj’s statement, Vas said, “It is a growing market and over a period of time, we hope to launch one new scooter every year.”
The company competes with players such as TVS, Ather and Ola. Additionally, the company is also planning to start shipping its products internationally by the end of this fiscal year, said Vas.
Manufacturing unit
Currently, Chetak Technology manufactures 6,000 vehicles per month, and once the company goes fully on stream, it will be able to produce 15,000-20,000 vehicles per month, said Vas.
In June 2022, the company inaugurated its new EV manufacturing facility, co-located with its R&D centre in Akurdi, Pune. Chetak Technology Ltd. and its vendor partners said they will invest around ₹750 crore in the new plant, according to a release. CTL was incorporated in October 2021 and the production started in November 2022.
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