New Delhi, Jan 4 (Business Today): The RE60 is not a 'car'; Rajiv Bajaj, Managing Director of Bajaj Auto made that very, very clear at the press conference where he unveiled the product. It is, in his own words a 'four-wheeler' and in response to a question I asked him about the name he also made it clear that he wanted its 'core' customer to understand its lineage. The Bajaj RE is the most popular three-wheeler on Indian roads and over 200,000 of them are sold every year. The RE60 is not just a 'spiritual' successor to the three-wheeler, it is the successor to the four-wheeler. "This is a four-wheeler designed and developed with the skills we have as a two/three wheeler company", Rajiv Bajaj highlighted.

It does not have any aspirations to be a car, and Rajiv Bajaj made it quite clear. This was, as he highlighted only the second time he had seen the vehicle in physical form and admitted that his on-off and then on-again partners Renault-Nissan had never seen it. "The platform that we have developed for the RE60 can be used to develop a three-wheeler or a car, but what happens going forward is still up in the air." Until Renault-Nissan see the car, the future direction is still to be decided.

But what about the RE60 itself? First, it is quite small, and like the Tata Nano is elegant with clean flowing lines, this is not. Indeed, some might even call this quite ugly. But one model on display had an integrated Auto Meter and with Bajaj likely fitting a 200cc plus engine using Bajaj's patented DTSi technology, which produces around 14-15 horsepower, it is more powerful than a current auto rickshaw. Plus it has a roof. According to Bajaj engineers, who did not give out exact technical specifications, the RE60 will give 35 kilometers to a litre in regular usage with carbon emissions of around 60 grams per kilometer, less than half that of most other small cars.

And there were a few surprising bits. The first is that the RE60 may not start life on Indian roads, but rather in Sri Lanka. "We sell 10,000 Bajaj RE three-wheelers in Sri Lanka every month and 9,000 of them are used for personal transportation. We feel that in Sri Lanka we can easily establish this as a mode of private city commuting", Rajiv Bajaj highlighted. But in India, he believes the massive opportunity exists in the five million plus Bajaj three-wheeler fleet on the roads. "I feel that in the next ten years, that entire fleet can be replaced with something like this." In so far as ambition, Rajiv Bajaj cannot be faulted.

And he has one ally, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, one of the few policymakers to have seen the vehicle and believes will get rid of the 'eye-sores' (the three-wheelers) from her city. Tata and M&M have been killing off small commercial three-wheelers with their ultra-light trucks, and the RE60 with some backing from cities like Delhi; and do not be surprised if a diktat to replace all three-wheelers with products like the RE60 happens within a year or so; the RE60 is already on its way towards becoming that irritating moving traffic obstacle that the Bajaj RE three-wheeler already is. Albeit a safer one, so say hello to the 'Autogaddi'.