Archive for Bajaj

Bajaj Auto already has a joint venture with Nissan and Renault to develop the low-cost Bajaj ULC for the Indian market, but Bajaj Auto’s managing director Rajiv Bajaj says that by July another agreement will be signed to explore additional products to be added to the Bajaj-Renault-Nissan portfolio such as larger cars and MPVs.

“There’s no way one can compete with a single product in any market, be it cell phones or motorcycles or cars. We are planning a portfolio of products. There would be different products, not just variants of the same product at different price points,” said Rajiv Bajaj.

I think its safe to say that Renault-Nissan’s new partner in the Indian market is Bajaj Auto. They’ve been said to be on a lookout for a new partner ever since the collaboration with Mahindra to produce the Renault Logan in India did not take off very well.

Even in the recent story on Proton in India by the Economic Times of India, it was mentioned that talks between Proton and Mahindra aren’t going so well because Mahindra wanted to stay away from the passenger vehicle market for awhile after the Logan’s unsuccessful run.

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The Renault-Nissan Alliance and Bajaj Auto will form a new joint-venture in India, held 50% by Bajaj Auto, 25% by Renault and 25% by Nissan. The new joint venture will develop and produce a new low cost car called the ULC, which would have a price tag of USD2,500 onwards. Not sure what ULC stands for at this moment, but I’m guessing something to the lines of Ultra Low Cost.

The Bajaj ULC will most likely be a production version of the Bajaj Lite concept car (shown above) displayed at the New Delhi Auto Show earlier this year. The Bajaj Lite concept featured a 2-cylinder engine and driven to the wheels via what Bajaj says is a new type of transmission that is a cross between a manual and an automatic.

That sounds like a manual with a computer controlled clutch like the Savvy’s AMT gearbox to me, but we’ll see what Bajaj has up its sleeves. Could a centrifugal clutch like a bike’s (Bajaj is a bike maker) be used on a car? Actually, it has been used in the past, but we’re talking about cars from the 1930s here.

Bajaj managing director Rajiv Bajaj was quoted referring to the Lite concept to say, “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.”

Two more photos of the Bajaj Lite concept after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Renault-Nissan and Bajaj team up for USD2,500 car