That was true. And this discussion was all about EV market out there so not an issue for Ather because for me as per my opinion Ather is far more superior vehicle than Bajaj Chetak.
So actually this whole thing that Ather is ok with discussion over other brands is because they are confidant about their product and that is what actually impressive for me.
Yes Bajaj has that advantage of established brand name. But we have to accept the fact that it is trying to compete with a new brand ”ATHER”. So the facts speak.
Everyone will get Fame 2 subsidy but that’s only for first vehicle. If you need subsidy again you need to register it on the name of family members.
Coming to pricing, Chetak mentioned on road price which includes subsidy and insurance etc… For Ather they are including subsidy but not insurance and road tax, registration charges.
Good that I stayed clear of this crap and went for Ather 450.
It was a good decision to cancel the booking, however losing out the cancellation charges.
This price increase is shown on their website for almost 5 months. You can see my post (Bajaj Chetak) from Oct 2020 on this thread itself.
It’s not the price increase that is the main problem as the increase is marginal especially for the premium variant. The main problem is the availability. They have closed bookings long back and the sales numbers for the last few months show that they are not even able to fulfill the old bookings. Maybe relying too much on imports from China?
Established companies are too stubborn and reluctant to invest in new technologies. If they are not ready to compete with their existing ICE models, someone else will.
This is why I really hope the likes of Ola and Ather will be very successful with their EVs. Ather really need to bring a 450 back without smart features.
This price hike happened quite a while back. Even few of the people who had a booking from last year were subjected to the new prices. But the real issue is bookings and delivery. I know quite a few people(myself included ) waiting for Bajaj to reopen bookings for the chetak. Even at 1.2 Lakhs. It’s a good deal now. Considering where other EV offerings stand as of now. Iqube and 450 Plus don’t have the range and practicality to compete with chetak. And chetak power and range are near perfect combination for urban commute. It’s weight, balance and availability are the only few drawbacks.
Sneaky chetak. They make you order the scooter based on a low price and now clearly saying the price will be higher when you make the purchase. Why even give a price then?
Bajaj the new mahindra of 2w EVs.
Was going to buy one, these cheap tactics by Bajaj isn’t giving me any good impressions on the intentions of the company.
Better to move onto to simple or Ola
That’s definitely a cunning move. If they plan to increase the prices they should have done before opening the bookings. How long before TVS increases the price of iQube?
Looks like many fed up waiting for the vehicle and canceled bookings. They hardly delivered 100 vehicles per month and total deliveries less than ~1500 in 14 months.
Such a sad state of the Indian EV 2 wheeler market. All the high-speed EVs (Ather, Chetak, iQube, Revolt) combined couldn’t sell even half of the Vespa (one of least selling 2 wheeler). Absurd pricing and limited availability continue to hurt the sales despite very good subsidies and tax incentives.
@abhishek.balaji himself posts news about other EVs so clearly Ather doesn’t have an issue with posting news on competitors. Makes sense too. If competitors do better, the pie becomes bigger🙂
I wouldn’t say that this thread is promotion for chetak, considering all the criticism for the stupid moves theyre making. Do scroll for those.
@suryar84 You do realise. How big a joke this is right? They didn’t close due to high demand if they had so much demand taht they can’t handle, why would they announce entry into 2 new cities? XD
It’s clearly an attempt at some cheap publicity