Air conditioning and electric avatar are among the steps Bajaj Auto is exploring to change the fortunes of its quadricycle Qute.
The Qute hit the Indian roads after years-long legal and regulatory battles. But it is yet to make its mark and a majority is currently being exported.
The company is now working on upgrading the Qute to increase its appeal in the domestic market. Rakesh Sharma, executive director, Bajaj Auto, said a product upgrade with air-conditioning and other features was required for the Qute.
An electric avatar of the quadricycle is also under works, Sharma said. It would be the first electric offering in the quadricycle category and will add to the EV portfolio of e-scooters and e-3W. The Qute will come with multiple fuel options — petrol, CNG, LPG, bi-fuel and electric.
Other than this, the Qute is largely being exported and sold in eight countries in Latin America and Africa, including Mexico, Guatemala and Ethiopia. The latest export destination is Egypt. The company started shipping to Egypt this month. Egypt had in April 2022 banned three-wheelers and halted Bajaj’s exports to the country. “We worked with them for the last one-and-a-half years, and the Egyptian government has recognised the Qute for last-mile transport segment. The company hopes to build on this in the coming years,” Sharma said.
According to Elara Securities, currently around 500,000 units of 3W are running in Egypt and Bajaj Auto used to sell around 6,000 units a month here with peak monthly sales of 9,000 units and the export of Qute to Egypt was a good incremental opportunity.
In the first three quarters of FY24, the company sold 3,865 Qute units — 3,080 units were exported and 658 units sold in the domestic market.
In the Indian market, the company has been running a limited partnership with Uber. The company has been offering Qute rides in Bengaluru on the Uber platform (UberXS) since 2019. Bajaj Qute Auto-Taxi covered 50 lakh km and completed seven lakh trips on the Uber platform in Bengaluru till 2022. Qute riders gave the Qute rides a rating of 4.86, making it one of the highest-rated ride categories on Uber.
Bajaj Auto has waged a long battle for Qute’s approval. The nod from the central government for the creation of this category came with permission to run it as a public transport for intra-city movement. However, the development of the quadricycle category has been slow. According to the company, it has been a long and arduous journey to navigate the process of creating a new set of regulations at the Centre and then at state level as it was an entirely new category. Despite the delays and hurdles, the company has persisted with the Qute through a combination of experimentation and focused scale-ups by positioning it between the 3W and passenger car, and as a smart taxi option with the comfort of a car and the affordability of a 3W.
