India's one of the leading two- and three-wheeler manufacturer, Bajaj Auto showcased its first four-wheeler at the 2012 Auto Expo held at Delhi. With its RE 60, Bajaj has finally ventured into the car market after a long time. Touted as a low emission and cost effective car, the RE 60 is most likely to be tagged under the 'commercial vehicle' category.
This eco-friendly vehicle is equipped with a 216 cc engine, water cooled DTSi 4 (Digital Twin Spark Ignition) valve that gives away a fuel efficiency of 40 kmpl. It will be available in petrol as well as CNG variant. It is expected to emit just 60 gm/km carbon dioxide and clock a top speed of 70 kmph. It has been designed as per the urban living conditions and is donned with safety features and duty cycles. As of now, it is the cheapest of all four-wheelers and would deliver a stiff competition to the Tata Nano. Experts believe that RE 60 could play a significant role in soaring Baja's success graph in the Indian auto market.
RE 60 will be produced at the company's Aurangabad unit but it will be exported to the neighbouring companies first before being officially launched in India. The Indian government recently issued a notification about categorising this vehicle as a commercial one. In fact a lot of state government authorities have showed interest in using this means of transport on roads. The notification was passed on the basis that the size of this vehicle is larger as compared to an auto rickshaw and smaller than a car. It must be noted that the day of the announcement saw an increase in the shares of this firm.
This means of transport is likely to hit the roads, though not the highways, as soon as the final confirmation by the court will be announced in October. It has also stated that it should not weigh more than 450 kg when used for transporting people and 550 kg while transportation of goods. It can occupy four people and when carrying goods, only the driver and one passenger is allowed. Externally, it has sporty wheels and body coloured bumpers. The vehicle has a monocoque frame and a metal-polymer hybrid is used to fabricate it. It has an under-seat storage of 95 litres and a boot space of 44 litres, providing a lot of space to the passengers.
The car comes equipped with a central speedometer cluster, moulded seats and folding front windows. It has a just one windscreen wiper to keep the wind shield clean and has a turning radius of 3.5-metre so that even the small places can be kept clean. This product took around four years to develop and with all the promising features, experts are pretty confident about the success of this model. This project was started by Bajaj and its partners, Renault-Nissan and as per the agreement it was decided that the vehicle would be developed and manufactured by Bajaj. The company has revealed that its partners have not yet gone through the original finalised product and its just the virtual tour that they have taken. As per reports, they seem to be disinterested as of now and the company has not received a response yet. However, such an outcome has not lowered its spirit as it is pretty confident about the model's success in the market.
