Bajaj’s small car the ‘Lite’

Posted at January 8th, 2008 under Auto Expo 2008, Auto News, Small cars | 12 Comments »  Print This Post  Email This Post

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To avoid being overshadowed by the Tata car, automobile manufacturers are scheduling their announcements for January 8-9.
It all begins with Bajaj Auto’s small car on Tuesday(january 08), followed by General Motors, Volkswagen, Fiat (Tata’s joint venture partner), Maruti, Volvo Cars and the rest. Bajaj Auto addressed a press conference today (on 8 January) and discussed some details of the small car, launch of superbikes in india and the road ahead with the partners. Bajaj will join suzuki and Yamaha by rolling out super bikes in 2008.”We will launch KTM and Kawasaki bikes sometime this year,” Managing Director Rajiv Bajaj said. Bajaj also said it will launch 3 new models in two-wheeler space in 2008. As Bajaj plans to revive its glory in scooter segment, it will launch Blade DTSi soon. Blade will be followed by Discover 150cc. Though pulsar continues to rule 150cc segment, its crown is challenged recently by apache RTR and Hero Honda Hunk. This year yamaha will roll out its premium bike (scooped as yzf R15) hence Bajaj believes uplifting discover will strengthen its presence in 150cc segment. A new variant of XCD called XCD sprint will be added to the Bajaj’s line-up

Lite – LCV and passenger carrier:

Long before Renault came into the people’s car scene, Bajaj started working for a four wheeler project (in 2005). Bajaj plans to use this new four wheeler platform for its passenger and cargo carrier vehicles. The cargo carrier will counter market leader Tata ace and piaggio ape truk. Bajaj’s new platform is named as ‘lite’.Bajaj Auto’s managing director Rajiv Bajaj said, “The middle ground (between two and four-wheelers) can spawn a range of ‘lite’ vehicles — a diet version if you will — and that’s something we will look at. We are intending to get into a family of ‘lite’ four-wheelers, both for people and goods. We will get into that business first with a goods carrier.” Bajaj Auto is building a plant at Chakan near Pune in the western state of Maharashtra will have the capacity to make 250,000 light trucks and cars a year.Bajaj Auto Ltd will launch its lite based small car in alliance with the French carmaker Renault and Japan’s Nissan Motor Co in 2-4 years. The low-cost car will be designed by Bajaj and produced at its Chakan plant in Maharashtra.

Bajaj’s lite concept: features‘tall boy’ image on the lines of Hyundai Santro. Though bajaj says lite as a concept car, it looks like it is ready for production. Fit and Finish seems good. Large raked headlamps occupies the major part of the bonnet. Connecting the headlamps is a line (not a grille). Above the grille is an unfamiliar badge, yes, bajaj’s badge looks strange on the bonnet of a car. Steeply raked large windscreen has become a rule for low cost cars. Thick B and C pillars supports the declining roof. Alloy wheels and stylish fog lamps raises suspicion whether Bajaj can bring the car around Rs1.2lakh ($3000 car). Bajaj’s lite based small car should not have unattractive rear like this. The pillar mounted tail lamps looks bad but Bajaj has time to rectify the design till 2010. Getting inside the ‘lite’ concept, the instrument panel is moved to centre similar to what we seen in Chevrolet Spark. The three spoke steering wheel bring the memory of cheap china made cars. The gear lever is mounted on the dash. But putting aside all this things, could you believe this is the first car made by a two- wheeler manufacturer.Really, i’m not, this is incredible. If Bajaj prices the lite based small car in between Rs1 lakh and Rs3 lakh. I can assure you that this will give other hatchbacks a run for money. Bajaj lite is perfect, nothing more can we expect from a small car.

Bajaj’s lite concept: based small car will be available in petrol and diesel variants.  We will also have a diesel option and one can always build LPG, CNG and hybrid options on to the platform as well,” Mr Bajaj said. For diesel, Bosch is “one option”, he added. The lite based small car will have twin-cylinder engine and will be positioned as an intra-city car.

Bajaj lite concept: Bajaj plans to make the lite based small car the most fuel-efficient small car in the market. Twin cylinder engine and an innovative transmission will make the lite to return more than 30km per litre. The management of Bajaj Auto said that they will rollout the small car in 2009.
Rajiv Bajaj, managing director, Bajaj Auto, said: “This is not a Rs 1 lakh car. It will be priced competitively but not sell on the pricing. Offering the customer twice the fuel economy is more effective than offering half the price.”