Bajaj Returns to the U.S. Scooter Market
PART I by Bryan Bedell |
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Bryan Noise is the publisher of 2strokeBuzz and an avid scooterist during the month-or-so a year he can keep his Vespa running.
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There are clear signs of an upcoming motorscooter boom in the United States, and dozens of the world's scooter manufacturers are racing to get their feet in the door. Honda and Yamaha, the only two companies with a nationwide presence through the eighties and nineties, are finally updating their plastic automatics to compete with newly-available exotic designs from Italjet, Piaggio, and Aprilia. These European marques are finally establishing dealerships and supplying U.S. dealers with a reasonable stream of product. Meanwhile, several brands of inexpensive Asian scooters are appearing as beach rentals and delivery vehicles. For once, there are real choices in the scooter market; models ranging in size from 50cc to 250cc, in design from vintage to futuristic, and in price from $1500 to over $5000. While that might seem like good news to long-time scooterists, it hasn't changed things that much, other than driving prices of used Vespas and Lambrettas through the roof. While sellers can look forward to a hefty profit, now is a bad time for people looking to expand their collection or for those looking to get into the rally scene. Most affordable plastic 50s are unable to keep up with the speed or the style of vintage machines, and some high-end European models are as expensive as motorcycles. While there are a couple "twist & gos" available for under $2000, there's not much worth mentioning to fans of classic scooters. That might be about to change, as Indian manufacturer Bajaj Auto Ltd. is poised to re-enter the marketplace with three scooters under $2000. Two of these scooters, the Chetak and the Legend, feature a steel frame in the style of the Vespa, but feature modern 145cc 4-speed 4-stroke engines. The third is the modern-styled 90cc Saffire 4-stroke automatic. Above, a Bajaj worker removes a freshly-stamped cowl from the metal press. Below, assembly-line workers put together 2-stroke scooter engines. Photos on this page are courtesy of David McCabe.
Bajaj was formed in 1945 by Jamnalal Bajaj, a follower and friend of Mahatma Ghandi. Bajaj imported Italian-made Vespas from Piaggio starting in 1948, and produced Vespas under license in the 1960s. In 1970, the contract with Piaggio ended, and Bajaj began engineering and designing its own brands of scooters. Bajaj Auto has become the world's largest scooter manufacturer. In 2000, Bajaj sold more than 750,000 Legend/Chetak-type scooters. If you combine all of Bajaj Auto's three-wheeled utility vehicles, motorcycles, and scooters, the company produced nearly a million and a half vehicles last year, sold in India and more than 60 other countries. In India, Bajaj has a reputation equal to that of Piaggio and Innocenti in the 60s, as a builder of affordable, fuel-efficient scooters that run forever. |
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