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-   -   Detailed comparison of the 'Indian Rickshaws'! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/commercial-vehicles/114935-detailed-comparison-indian-rickshaws.html)

Three wheelers taxis popularly known as 'autos' or 'rickshaws' have been an integral part of our life since many years.

Being born & bought up in Mumbai, I have seen and sat only in Bajaj RE series autos & nowadays all are CNGs. Its only when I visit Kerela & Pune that I get to see other rickshaws like Mahindra, Piaggio, Atul, etc. I was actually surprised when I sat in a Bajaj RE series rick in Kerela & it turned out to be a diesel. I never knew it existed!

So, I thought of making a technical comparison of the models. Also, I am sure many BHPians would have a lot to share about our rickshaws. Lets compare our ricks!

Typically ricks are available in petrol, diesel, CNG & LPG.

In the petrol category, we have:

1) Bajaj RE 2S



2) Bajaj RE 4S



3) Bajaj GDI



4) Piaggio Ape City



Comparison of their technical specs here -

petrol.xls

In the diesel category we have,

1) Bajaj RE Diesel



2) Bajaj Mega Max



3) Mahindra Alfa Passenger Diesel



4) Piaggio Ape Xtra



5) Piaggio Ape City



6) Atul Shakti Smart



7) Atul Gem Paxx



Comparison of their technical specs here -

diesel.xls

In the CNG category, we have -

1) Bajaj RE 2S CNG



2) Bajaj RE 4S CNG



3) Piaggio Ape Xtra CNG



4) Piaggio Ape City CNG



5) Atul Shakti Smart Passenger CNG



6) TVS King



Comparison of their technical specs here -

CNG.xls

In the LPG category we have -

1) Bajaj RE 2S LPG

2) Bajaj RE 4S LPG

3) Piaggio Ape Xtra LPG

4) Piaggio Ape City LPG

(Pics same as above)

Comparison of the technical specs here -

LPG.xls

Now, in 3 wheelers, although not very popular, we do have some 6+1 seater versions as well -

1) Mahindra Champion Diesel



2) Mahindra Champion CNG



3) Atul Shakti



Comparison of the technical specs here -

6 seaters.xls

As the market is evolving, we can see the trend slowly shifting towards 4 wheels now -

Summary:

1) Prices have not been mentioned as the official websites does not have any information regarding it.

2) Please do point out mistakes, if any.

3) Please do mention if I have left out any product.

My experience with :

1) Bajaj RE 2S Petrol -

Ease of ingress/egress : 4/5
Passenger Space : 3/5
NVH : 2/5
Acceleration (as experienced) : 4/5
Ride quality : 3/5
Luggage space : 2/5
Dashboard : 1/5

2) Bajaj RE 4S CNG -

Ease of ingress/egress : 4/5
Passenger Space : 3/5
NVH : 3/5
Acceleration (as experienced) : 2/5
Ride quality : 3/5
Luggage space : 2/5
Dashboard : 1/5

3) Bajaj Mega Max -

Ease of ingress/egress : 3/5
Passenger Space : 4/5
NVH : 1/5
Acceleration (as experienced) : 2/5
Ride quality : 3/5
Luggage space : 3/5
Dashboard : 2/5

4) Mahindra Alfa Diesel -

Ease of ingress/egress : 4/5
Passenger Space : 4/5
NVH : 3/5
Acceleration (as experienced) : 3/5
Ride quality : 3/5
Luggage space : 3/5
Dashboard : 3/5

5) Piaggio Ape Xtra -

Ease of ingress/egress : 2/5
Passenger Space : 4/5
NVH : 2/5
Acceleration (as experienced) : 2/5
Ride quality : 2/5
Luggage space : 4/5
Dashboard : 2/5

6) TVS King CNG -

Ease of ingress/egress : 4/5
Passenger Space : 3/5
NVH : 4/5
Acceleration (as experienced) : 4/5
Ride quality : 4/5
Luggage space : 2/5
Dashboard : 4/5

Till now, I have liked the TVS King the most.

Same here! I felt TVS rides much better then Bajaj. Even NVH level and visible quality is much better then that of Bajaj.

TVS scores very well in all the aspects like fit and finish, noise level insulation interiors etc. They have benchmarked Bajaj in all technical parameters like to like and placed their spec comparatively higher. But IMO, they should have created more space for passenger - if not more atleast little more than what is been currently offered. That would been a better selling proportion also.
And more importantly, they look alike Bajaj RE in many angles and many people are not aware of such a product from TVS.
By and large a great attempt by TVS to crack the almost monopoly (petrol segment) market of Bajaj.

Incidentally I was planning to start a thread in driving and Passenger review in Magic and Maxximo Mini van.Let me add posts in a couple of days.

One from my native, these Lamby Rickshaw's are rather were very popular in the early 80's, you can still see a lot of them around.

PIC Source : The Indian Lambretta Guide

The 3 Wheeler commercial (i.e. non-personal use) vehicles market has two major segments, viz. Passenger (Segment A) and the Goods Carrier (Segment B). The 3 Wheeler market is also divided on the basis of the Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) into sub 1 Tonne (i.e. sub-segments A1 and B1) and larger than 1 Tonne but less than 1.5 Tonne three wheelers (i.e. sub-segments A2 and B2).

Thus three-wheelers market is divided into four sub-segments for the purpose of the analysis,

Segment A1 : Less than 1 T GVW Passenger Carrier. These three wheelers generally seat 3 passengers (plus 1 driver).
Segment A2: Less than 1.5 T but greater than 1 T GVW. These three wheelers are designed to seat maximum of 6 passengers (plus 1 driver)
Segment B1 : Less than 1 T Good Carrier
Segment B2: Less than 1.5 T but greater than 1 T Goods Carrier


The Segment A1 is composed of two sub-segments which are different from each other. Nearly half of the A1 segment is composed of the small size Petrol/CNG 3 wheelers from Bajaj and TVS King. The other half of the A1 is composed slightly bigger Diesel/CNG three wheelers from manufacturers like Piaggio, Atul Auto, Mahindra & Mahindra. The market dynamics, growth drivers and regulatory environment for both these sub-segments is very different from each other



2003 2009
Segment A1 (excluding Bajaj small 3W) 16,061 134,344
Segment A2 8,765 4,276
Segment B1 37,259 59,938
Segment B2 26,224 21,292

I see Firodia auto missing. The one with steering wheel. Its very popular in rural areas.

Those Paggio Auto's ads have rather nice background to them. The guy who photoshopped the whole thing should have thought twice about the kind of places these autos will run. :)