Bajaj CNG Bike: Will More 2-Wheeler Makers Follow Suit? |
Once the market leader and now fourth in the pecking order, Bajaj Auto is all set to launch the world’s first CNG bike on 5th of July! Yes you heard it right! Bajaj Auto will make a revolutionary change in India’s automotive space in a bid to go head to head against mileage leader in the two wheeler category – Hero Motocorp.
The ex-showroom price of the Bajaj CNG bike – some say it will be called Bajaj Fighter – is expected to be around ₹80,000 and would feature a sloper-type sub-125cc engine. This is a segment where Hero Motocorp leads the market with a 66% market share.
Ahead of the launch, Bajaj Auto’s Managing Director, Rajiv Bajaj in an interview in March this year had said that, the new Bajaj CNG motorcycle intends to do what Hero had done – that is to halve the cost of the fuel for the end user. He had said that for an average of 500 kilometers a month, the running cost of the bike would reduce from ₹950- ₹1,100 per month for a petrol bike to about ₹450 – ₹500 a month for this CNG option.
But does it make sense for Bajaj Auto to launch a CNG bike when the rest of the world is focusing on introducing electric two-wheelers? For a country like India, perhaps yes! For now at least.
First, CNG engines don’t require a complete reengineering of the engine, like electric ones do. Electric two-wheelers come with a higher price tag as well as lower per-charge range, making them unviable for many riders. Moreover, the EV discounts that the government had offered through the Faster Adoption of Electric Mobility or FAME scheme ran into troubled waters last year with a clause that automakers did not adhere to localization norms. Hero Electric was one of the worst hit companies – while a new player – Ola Electric maximized the opportunity.
Like Electric 2-wheeler, CNG bikes will also make travelling more economical. CNG is a cheaper fuel and CNG engines promise better fuel efficiency too. For a ‘kitna deti hai’ economic mindset a CNG bike that cuts running cost by as much as 50% makes sense for the Indian consumer. For the makers, the cost of reengineering is negligible.
But even as CNG has seen an uptick in commercial fleet including busses, three-wheelers and taxis, the long queues at refuelling stations could pose to be a challenge for personal use CNG vehicles, including bikes. The government hasn’t been able to scale up CNG stations in line with demand for the fuel type.
But that could change with the new 17,500 CNG stations likely to come up by 2030, as per Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas.
So will the consumer ride the level of optimism and confidence that Rajiv Bajaj has set course with? Well, that’s something that data will tell us come 5th July.
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