New Delhi: With eyes firmly set on expanding its product portfolio beyond two wheelers, Bajaj Auto is betting big on the electric three wheeler (e3w) segment. Not only is it launching a new product in the e3w auto segment which will cater to passenger as well as cargo, the company has also announced entry into the passenger e-rickshaw market. Later this quarter, it plans to launch the first e-rickshaw, hoping to make a mark in a category which is currently dominated by small, unorganised players. At about 45,000 units per month, the e-rickshaw market is about half of the entire three wheeled mobility space.Bajaj’s focus on the electric three wheeled mobility space is a smart move, specially since it continues to be fourth in the pecking order in its bread and butter motorcycle business in the domestic market, behind Hero MotoCorp, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India and TVS Motor Company. A strong electric three wheeled mobility portfolio will aid the bottomline and provide a small cushion for any swings in two-wheeler fortunes as well as against increased uncertainties on the export front, given the new volatile world trade order.
Already, Bajaj has also been making rapid strides in the electric two-wheeler space through Chetak.
Three wheels of mobility:
Bajaj has already charted a meteoric rise in the electric three wheeler industry, reaching a third of the domestic market in the L5 passenger segment in 2024. Executive Director Rakesh Sharma said during a call with analysts that the company expects the L5 category to continue to grow at 4-6% level, primarily driven by increasing electric vehicle penetration. Bajaj has decided to launch a variant “larger in size” in the L5 category, which has an application in the passenger plus cargo segment. “The need for such a product exists even in the electric segment.
Core urban areas prefer smaller e-vehicles but smaller towns need vehicles with a larger body. We already have a larger body vehicle in the ICE format, we will now launch it also in the electric format. As we do that, it is important to ensure performance of the new electric product – gradability (the height this vehicle can climb) and load carrying capacity must be good. Those tests have been done and we are very excited about this product. This product will happen in the current quarter and it should give us good play in many geographies where our market share is lower”.
Bajaj has decided to bring together all three wheeler products under a new brand, Bajaj GoGo. The L5 segment is crowded, with nearly 140 OEMs, but most of them are electric-first. In the last one year, Bajaj alongwith Piaggio and Mahindra, has already cornered more than a fifth of the market. But competition is heating up, with TVS Motor Company entering the fray. TVS has launched its own products in the cargo and passenger categories besides also forging a tieup with Hyundai Motor Company for more products in the premium end of the market.
And since e-rickshaws account for nearly half the volumes in the three wheeled mobility space, Bajaj has now decided to launch its first product in this category in the current quarter. The e-rickshaw market is largely concentrated in the north and east of the country, is a fragmented market and Sharma said it currently has a lot of “substandard” products. “By introducing our e-rick we hope to organise the market and bring in fresh new business for us. I guess we will start to see a real scale up in the first quarter of the new fiscal.”
Unlike the auto three wheeler space, though, competition from organised players would be rather small in e-rickshaws. With its considerable sales and distribution network vis-a-vis the smaller e-rickshaw players, will Bajaj quickly gain market share and heft? This remains to be seen.
K N Radhakrishan, CEO of TVS, did not outrightly dismiss a question recently about the possibility of the company entering the e-rickshaw space. “Now coming to the e-rickshaw category, I think we are closely understanding. See, the good thing about TVS is we have a strong R&D and design capability. So we can always come back, we can reflect,” he said, while going on to talk about the new electric three wheeler the company has just launched.
