Unveiling the Lite concept car two days ahead of Tata’s much anticipated small car, Bajaj sent a strong message to the industry about its serious intentions.
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Designed as an intra-city vehicle, the concept is a ‘tall boy’ design with a 2,000mm wheelbase and overall length of around 3,000mm.
While the concept is in its early stages, the production car – to be launched around 2010 – is expected to be priced at around $US3,000.
But Bajaj’s product design is not price-centric. Rajiv Bajaj Auto managing director Rajiv Bajaj told just-auto: “It would be inappropriate to say that it will be priced at one lakh (INR100,000 or $2,500) or two lakh (INR200,000 or $5,000) or anywhere in between, because it is too premature and that is not the centre of gravity for our project.
“Performance and price is what is important. This is not a one lakh car. It will be priced competitively but not sold on the pricing. Offering the customer twice the fuel economy is more effective than offering half the price.”
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By GlobalDataAt the moment small car sales account for two-thirds of India’s domestic market. The industry estimates that small car sales are expected to rise to 2m units a year by 2010.
While Bajaj has only unveiled a concept car, and that’s miles away from production, it’s just two days before Tata unveils its production-ready ‘people’s car’ and that has also sent a strong message to the industry and Bajaj’s rivals.
The Tata project is at an advanced stage with the company already building a ‘mother’ facility at Singur (West Bengal, India) which will manufacture cars as well as kits to be shipped to three other future Tata manufacturing plants in India.
Bajaj on the other hand is building a facility at its traditional hub of Chakan (near Pune, Maharashtra) which will manufacture light commercial vehicles and cars based on the Lite platform.
Until now, Bajaj has developed the concept in-house. However, the concept becomes extremely significant in light of the company’s expressed interest in partnering with Renault-Nissan for the joint production and sales of small cars, starting 2010.
In such a scenario, the Lite may actually be the starting point for future Bajaj-Renault-Nissan small cars.
While the Bajaj-Nissan partnership is officially just for a joint study, it is apparent that there is more to come now with Mahindra having withdrawn from its planned mini-car collaboration with Renault-Nissan.
The alliance is critical for Bajaj Auto as the new breed of microcars set to be unveiled in India by Tata, Volkswagen and Bajaj is likely to steal some sales from the two-wheel market where Bajaj is currently the second largest player.
The success of the project is dependent on large volumes and a nationwide reach from day one which Bajaj-Nissan will achieve by piggy-backing on Bajaj’s existing two- and three-wheel dealer network.
Nissan for its part could also help Bajaj with its experience in the design and production of power-train systems.
The Tata small car has a standard CVT gearbox and if Bajaj plans to go that way then Nissan’s experience with CVT based small cars in Japan will come in handy.
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