The Indian Bajaj Auto, has filed the name Freerider for trademark, potentially a brand that will market exclusively electric vehicles.
Bajaj Auto India registered a trademark on the name Freerider, that will potentially serve as the company’s electric vehicle brand.
The trademark that was filed on March 1, 2021, and has already been approved as of June 21, has a very similar business angle to that of the Harley-Davidson and the Livewire brand.
The India based company registered the name “Freerider” that will solely market vehicles with an electric motor. Even with early speculation that the trademark name will possibly be the name of a model, but as time went by it became evident that something bigger could be coming.
Even though full disclosure was not made by Bajaj, the company reached out to the India Stock Exchange – BSE – with the plan to form a separate, wholly owned subsidiary. The name was not determined at that point
“The wholly owned subsidiary will leverage the growth opportunities in the evolving mobility space and will help the company venture into the manufacturing of electric and hybrid vehicles in the two, three and four wheelers category,”
Bajaj Auto Statement
Without a formal confirmation, we can only assume that the trademarked Freerider name will be used as the brand name for the new subsidiary company.
Bajaj Auto Currently has just one electric 2-wheeler in their model lineup, under the brand Chetak Electric. The Chetak electric scooter had great success so far in India, but the limited units, and production capacity limitations had set-it-back from meeting its potential.
The move could also potentially signal incoming electric 2-wheelers by other brands sold under Bajaj, like KTM and Husqvarna. Where previous coverage indicated the name might be used for a single model, the announcement on establishing a subsidiary company strongly indicates that the name will be used for the new brand.
The announcement timing is adjacent to many other electric news we recently saw, considering the latest success of start up companies like Ola Electric, who sold out on every online pre-order thus far, as well as Revolt, which had similar demand, and TVS Motor that just released their iQube electric scooter in Kochi.
As India continues to progress into electric mobility, and with further regulations in the form of FAME II, the markets are heating up and more companies are quick to react to demand, Bajaj being no stranger to the space will also try to meet the demand by consumers.
We previously covered more of the details for FAME II regulation, and the financial benefits of it, as they vary from one state to another. FAME-II subsidy, brought in new rules offering 50% more incentives on two-wheeler EVs.
For electric 2-wheelers: Rs 15,000 per kWh of battery capacity, up to 40% of the vehicle cost exempt from tax.
The local states incentivize with further subsidy of up to Rs 5000 and as high as Rs 10,000 in Meghalaya, while in other states, road tax and registration fee exemption are offered. In the state of Gujarat an announcement for further incentives plan to increase the subsidy to Rs 20,000, and invest in infrastructures to support electric vehicle growth in the state.
Source: Moto.it, India Times, hindustan times,