There are compact cars, expensive cars, sports cars, ultra-luxury cars, value for money cars, compact cars, cheap and budget cars running on the road. There are even three-wheelers running on roads. And then comes the mixture of both. Yes! ladies and gentlemen here is the Bajaj Qute which does has 4 doors and a roof like a traditional car but is the fairly low maintenance cost.
The Bajaj Qute was showcased in at 2012 Indian Auto Expo in Delhi. Well, it took many years to make it a reality and let the Qute run on the Indian roads. You may ask why? This is because over the years the company was requesting the transportation department to launch the vehicle. Indeed they did launch the vehicle but it will not be registered as a conventional car. Instead, the Qute is India’s first quadricycle. What is a quarter cycle? like a four-wheeler, this too is a new vehicle category for 4 wheeler microcars.
Let’s have a peek into what Qute has to offer. Is it really the future of public transport?
Powertrain and Transmission
- For starters, a 216cc, single-cylinder engine powers the Qute. It produces about 13bhp@5,500rpm and 18.9Nm@4,000 of peak torque. These are the figures for the petrol version of the Qute.
- On the other hand the same engine powers the CNG Qute but with low power and torque figures. To be precise the CNG variant produces just 10bhp and about 16Nm of peak torque.
- In both of the cases, the quadricycle comes with a rear-mounted engine. A 5-speed sequential manual transmission the power to the rear wheels.
Features??
Still, thinking that this vehicle gets some features? But I’m afraid the vehicle offers no features. It is just are bare bone car which gets you from point A to point B at the lowest cost possible.
- Though the car comes with 4 seat belts, in which the front seats have pre-tensioners whereas the rear ones are loose.
- Further while buying the vehicle you have an option to opt for a stereo on the inside which just gets a radio.
- Talking about the windows the Qute offers windows but they are sliding windows instead of roll-down windows.
- Talking about safety the Qute has been tested safe for a 35km/h frontal impact.
- More to it is that the vehicle has its speed restricted to 70Km/h.
- Besides the car comes with drum brakes on all the 4 wheels giving it a decent braking bite.
Now let’s answer the question
All the above seems promising as it gets a roof and 4-doors which provide a sense of safety over the half-open auto rickshaws. Even the running cost is as low as ₹1.5 per kilometre. The top speed is even adequate when talking about the city commutes. But here is where the things start to change. The cost of Bajaj Qute starts from ₹2.48 Lakhs for the petrol version and ₹2.78 Lakhs for the CNG version. The price of the vehicle is almost neck to neck with the Tata Nano which is even safer than Qute. Also, Nano is more powerful than the offering from Bajaj. Still talking about the running cost, it is very difficult to justify when it comes to the price of buying the vehicle. Still, it is a really good try by Bajaj and it might get some customers into the new quadricycle.
