Bajaj Auto awaits final rules on quadricycles

Even as Bajaj Auto waits for a government-appointed committee to come up with the final rules on quadricycles, the two-wheeler major continues to face opposition over the RE60 in India from competitors who have raised safety concerns amongst other dissenting voices. 

However, CNBC-TV18 learnt exclusively that the company is seeing interest picking up from export markets .

The deputy Prime Minister of Singapore will be visiting Bajaj Auto on May 4 to discuss export potential for the RE60. Singapore is not the only country. Similar interest has been expressed by countries both from the Latin Americal as well as the African region. This export interest is coming in for Bajaj at a time when its domestic competitors are becoming increasingly vocal.

Earlier on Friday, Maruti pointed to the safety concerns in the RE60, which is Bajaj Auto's four-wheeler and comes under a new classification of vehicles called the quadricycle.

Tata Motors ' Karl Slym, in two different tweets, said, "The number of wheels do not automatically make us better. It is adherence to tried and tested safety and emission norms. Why? The government and industry have been accelerating efforts in traffic safety and environment now we consider the quadricycle."

What all these companies are pointing to is that the safety and other norms for quadricycles and cars are different at the moment. Something which Bajaj Auto refutes by saying that a quadricycle is not really a car and that it should be sufficient if the Indian norms follow globally established norms.

The governments report clarifying what the guidelines and specifications are for the quadricycle category is awaited.