Bajaj Auto Limited will invest Rs 350 crore to set up a new electric vehicle(EV) facility in Akurdi, Pune. The unit will have a manufacturing capacity of 500,000 electric vehicles per year. Bajaj owns another factory in Akurdi for the Chetak scooter.
Bajaj will have cutting-edge automated and robotic manufacturing systems at its EV manufacturing unit in Pune. Fabrication and painting, logistics and material handling, and assembly and quality assurance will be automated. The plant will employ approximately 800 people. The first vehicle will be launched by June 2022.
“In 2001 Bajaj 2.0 took off on the roaring Pulsar, in 2021 Bajaj 3.0 arrives on the charming Chetak. Going forward, for the Bajaj portfolio, except for implementing one state-of-the-art ICE platform that is currently under development, all our R&D drive train resources are now laser-focused on creating EV solutions for the future. This alignment reflects our belief that light Electric Vehicles for sustainable urban mobility is an idea whose time may finally have come. Thus, this investment at Akurdi completes the virtuous cycle of hi-tech R&D competencies, high-efficiency engineering capabilities, world-class supply chain synergies, and a global distribution network which should leapfrog us into a market-leading position in EVs in India and overseas,” Rajiv Bajaj, Managing Director, Bajaj Auto Ltd. said.
