Bajaj Chetak Electric Scooter : Other level feelings!

By Kamlesh Mallick & Raphae Halim 

So the entire PluginIndia team and the EV community watched the new Hamara Kal video few months back. What nostalgic and emotional feeling for all of us! I kid you not, that evening, our EV community group was discussing the video and re-watching it non stop! ​And then when we saw and rode the 2020 Chetak electric scooter for the first time, there was another wave of positive feelings that engulfed all of us - both the old and the new generation! It's hard to describe. Such things need to be felt! 
​In this article we will document our initial impressions on the Chetak electric scooter, the experience centre and the people we met.

---

Chetak Experience Center at​ FC Road, Pune

Feeling of History
The Chetak experience center is located in the university area of FC Road in Pune. The historic Fergusson College is nearby, and that seems like a perfect location to offer EV education. 
The experience center is beautifully designed showing the origins of Bajaj and some interesting historical photos of the people who created the iconic petrol Bajaj scooter in the 1970s.

• 1972 - The first Chetak was created
• 1980 - Huge success of the Petrol Chetak. A waiting period of 10 years to get one!
• 1995 - 10,000,000 units sold
• 2005 - Petrol Chetak manufacturing stopped
• 2020 - Chetak returns powered by Electricity!

Looking at those historic photos, really gives you some perspective on the legacy and emotions, the brand evokes in India.

Question

• Will all this history and legacy of manufacturing ICE vehicles, impact Bajaj's electric scooter push?
  • What we learnt is that Bajaj Auto does not manufacture petrol scooters anymore, so there is no conflict of interest within the company. 
    ​So electric scooters will be promoted wholeheartedly.
    They dont have any restriction in the number of bookings. TVS for example, will only sell 1000 units of its electric scooter - the iQube each month.
    No such enforced limit here at Bajaj. So that is exciting for EV and electric scooter fans!

---

Feeling of Excellence
​When you first look at the Chetak, you immediately feel that this is next level in terms of build quality, paint job, quality of buttons and more!
Most electric scooters, which are imported from China feel substandard, after just taking one look at the Chetak. It goes to show experience and know-how of building scooters, matters.
If what we saw on the outside was impressive, what is inside is outstanding too.

• The battery pack stores 3 kWh worth of energy and is imported from Germany. It is made by Bosch. It is one of the largest battery packs used in an electric scooter.
• The battery pack has couple of powerful fans that blow air onto the pack while charging and discharging, thus keeping it cool.
• The motor again made by Bosch, is neither mounted on the rear wheel hub or is a mid drive unit. The motor is mounted on the side of the rear wheel and is a PMSM (permanent magnet synchronous motor), which has sinusoidal winding compared to BLDC motors. It would mean a pleasant and not sudden jerks while accelerating - which is exactly what we experienced.
• There is no chain or belt here, this is direct drive gearing which ensures high efficiency and is prone to less maintenance headaches compared to a belt driven mid drive based drivetrain.

All in all you get a feeling of excellence when you learn about the Chetak. 

Questions

• Is the 95 km range claimed by the company - real world range or marketing fluff?
  • What we learnt is that the ARAI certified range is higher than the 95 km, which the company is claiming. And Bajaj only promotes true range. 
• What about servicing of the imported battery pack?
  • We believe Bajaj has resources to offer good local service in case of any cell issues. But time will tell.

---

The Wow Feeling
Once you sit on the Chetak, and start riding, you feel there is lot space at the foot board. Almost everyone who took a test drive is just blown away by the smooth acceleration offered by the Chetak's PMSM motor. The Chetak starts in Eco mode by default. There are no buttons to switch mode from Eco to Sports like you see in imported electric scooters.
Just keep twisting throttle after certain speed and u hear an audible beep and it changes to Sports mode. And when u finish the drive, once Chetak stops and you set the side stand, it  automatically switches to N mode. Very good intelligence built onto the controller.
​And then there is the sound! The Chetak makes a beautiful jet like sound that is super cool! 
We usually associate petrol scooters with that awful headache inducing BRRRRR noise, so to hear the Chetak whistle past with just an electric whine was music to our ears.
​Imagine if congested city streets were all electric! The quieter sounds and the clean air would be incredible.

That 'Jet' like sound!  🤩​

---

The 'I want this' feeling
​While observing people take test drives, we saw people saying stuff like

• "I have stopped using scooters, but there is something about the electric Chetak that has got me excited again! Booking it"
  
• "I'm a Bajaj fan and i have come here to book it"
• "Till date best engineered e scooter launched fabulous Pickup and braking!!"
• "Now am addicted.  Feel like going back and doing more test rides !"

Something is happening. We had the e2o electric car which spawned a community of EV owners who would never go back to ICE cars.
Then there is Ather community who love their scooters and will never go back to Petrol scooters.  Now we have the Revolt and Chetak owners who again are extremely enthusiastic.
People are getting bitten by the electric bug!
​
Nikola Tesla's words are coming true when he said -
"It is a simple feat of scientific electrical engineering Electric power can drive the worlds machinery without the need of coal, oil, or gas. All that was great (electric propulsion) in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combatted, suppressed — only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle."

---

So the Chetak electric scooter! Are you in Pune and Bengaluru? Have u tried it?  Are you booking it?
​Do let us know about your thoughts on what you 'felt'!