Three Wheeler Manufacturers

The two and four wheelers are quite a hit all around the world. While the two wheelers have undergone significant improvement and transformation resulting in categories like scooters, scooterate, mopeds and motorcycles, the four wheelers too have come up in different shapes, size, design and forms. The cars have evolved into so many forms with light commercial and heavy commercial vehicles too making deep inroads into the global automobile markets. However, it is the three wheeler segment of the automobile that has lagged behind its other counterparts.
No wonder, as against them, the number of popular three wheeler manufacturers is quite limited and in India, one comes across only three leading three wheeler manufacturers.The leading three wheeler manufacturers in India are Bajaj Auto, Mahindra & Mahindra and the Italy-based Piaggio. While Bajaj Auto is a leading name in the Indian two wheeler segment, Mahindra & Mahindra is known more for its sports utility vehicles and jeeps like Bolero and Scorpio.

In the three wheeler segment, the classification is broadly in terms of carriage and passenger vehicles. Since the former does have a very limited capacity to carry goods and is not preferred by many, the three wheeler manufacturers are more into the passenger three wheelers. Bajaj Auto has a range of models for passenger three wheelers namely RE 2S, RE 4S, RE 4S CNG, RE 4S LPG, RE Diesel and RE Diesel Mega while its existing carriage three wheeler is called GC 1000.

Mahindra & Mahindra has got the Champion range of three wheelers. There are Champion pick up and Champion delivery vans while the Champion Passenger carrier is mostly seen in the western parts of the country. The Alfa three wheeler carriages of the M& M has a wide and tall cabin, heavy duty gear box, unique designed chassis and hydraulic shock absorbers.

The Italian auto major Piaggio manufactures Ape 50 in association with Bajaj Auto at Pune with a 150cc engine. This three wheeler has different body forms and matches the specifications of various countries wherever it is produced. TVS Motor has recently entered the fray with its own model of a three wheeler and with the market recording an impressive 18% CAGR rate over the last fiscal, the three wheeler manufacturers still have plenty to laugh about.