Bajaj's RE60

Bajaj Auto on Tuesday added a steering wheel to its core business of two- and three-wheelers, unveiling the RE60 — which it termed a “public passenger carrier” rather than a car. The price will be announced at the formal launch, which is a few months away. Bajaj Auto was believed to be working on a rival to the Tata Nano. However, it seems to be positioning the RE60 as a suitable replacement for lakhs of threewheelers, while offering a safer and more stable urban mobility option. The company’s managing director, Rajiv Bajaj, himself said it did not wish to make a car. “Certainly this is a product for which core customers are those who use a three-wheeler,” he said. The RE60 base model comes with an integrated digital fare meter in the dashboard. “This vehicle has been designed for intra-city passenger transport keeping in mind intra-city duty cycles and safety requirements,” said Bajaj. Bajaj Auto spent nearly four years in developing the RE60, that has a top speed of 70kmph, said company MD Rajiv Bajaj on Tuesday. The RE60 sports a rear-mounted 200cc petrol engine, boasts a mileage of 35 km to a litre of petrol and low carbon dioxide emission (60gm/km). “We are very excited with the outcome of our efforts and, in the RE60, we believe we have an excellent solution for the mobility challenges arising from the rapid urbanisation of India,” Rajiv Bajaj said. The vehicle, which has a seating capacity of four (2+2 or 1+3), may also attract individual buyers at the lower end of the market. But it is not clear how strong a competitor it can be to the Tata Nano that has a more powerful 623cc engine. Bajaj said the company wanted to target the three-wheeler segment in India, while also looking for opportunities overseas. “We make about 5.20 lakh three-wheelers a year of which only 2 lakh are sold in India and the rest exported. So we see markets like Sri Lanka, which could be the first export market, as having huge potential for RE60.” Though the company is tight-lipped about the pricing, it could be around that of a three-wheeler. A threewheeler powered by 150cc engines costs under Rs 1.5 lakh. But while the RE60 is a vehicle that has commercial application in passenger transport, Bajaj appears to have moved away from the initial plan of developing an ultra low-cost car in partnership with Renault-Nissan. Bajaj said if the Renault-Nissan alliance wanted, they could choose the RE60 which can be manufactured with design modifications to sell under their brand. “They have not seen the product yet. They have seen only on virtual media. They will see it in the Auto Expo. If they are disinterested, they are free to walk away.”