Rajiv Bajaj HITS back at Tata Design Head Pratap Bose: No faith in Harrier’s design?

Back in mid-October, Bajaj unveiled a new electric scooter and named it after the popular Chetak scooter series. However, Pratap Bose, VP-Global Design at Tata Motors seemed displeased with the scooter’s design. He expressed his displeasure over Chetak’s design as he tweeted “Sad day for Indian Design” in reply to a tweet. This is the first time that Bajaj has gone for an all-electric powertrain for its scooter and fitted it with several modern features. In a tweet, Pratap Bose said that ” Very Vespa as well. Missed opportunity to do something more unique :( Wonder what @Piaggio_Group will have to say about this”. Now, responding to Pratap Bose’s tweet, Bajaj MD Rajiv Bajaj said that the Tata Design Head could only speak about the design of the Chetak and not the product as a whole, before taking a dig at Tata’s products, mainly the Tata Harrier SUV.

Very Vespa as well. Missed opportunity to do something more unique :( Wonder what @Piaggio_Group will have to say about this https://t.co/U5ZTF9dtrK

— Pratap Bose (@BosePratap) October 16, 2019

Rajiv Bajaj rebuked the statement when asked about it at the showcase of the new Chetak electric scooter in Pune. Responding to media queries, Bajaj asked who is Pratap Bose. He said:

“I don’t know who he is. I mean I know he is the design head at Tata Motors but I don’t know where he’s coming from on this. Bose can make a statement on the design of the product alone and not on the quality because he hasn’t seen it or the price, which he does not know about. Even I don’t know about it.”

According to a report by Car&Bike, Rahul Bajaj also took a dig at the new Tata Harrier TVC that tells viewers about the Land Rover connection with automaker’s SUV. Commenting on the TVC, Rajiv Bajaj said that Tata does not have faith in its own design and they need to relate it as Land Rover’s poor cousin to sell its products.

Another Tweet by Pratap Bose read:

While we would not comment on the design of the new Chetak electric scooter or whether which of these two executives are right, we are definitely sure that they are not on the same page about the scooter’s design.

Talking about the new Bajaj Chetak electric, the scooter will be launched in January 2020 but its production has been going on since the 25th of September 2019. It rides on 12-inch multispoke alloy wheels that look quite stylish and are shod on with tubeless tyres. The headlamp is an all-LED unit with a LED DRL circling around the boundary of the oval headlamp housing. Price of the scooter has not been revealed yet.

An all-digital instrument cluster will provide the relevant information while an IP67 certified 4kW lithium-ion battery pack will power the scooter. It will get a BLDC electric motor but the power rating has not been revealed. The Chetak EV will feature two riding modes – Eco and Sport. The claimed range of the scooter is 85 km and 95 km in Sport and Eco modes respectively. When launches, the Chetak electric scooter will face competition from manufacturers like Okinawa and Ather. Expect the prices of the scooter to be around Rs. 1 lakh when launched.