Bajaj Freedom 125 CNG Bike Real World Tested Mileage Explained

Bajaj Auto has generated quite a lot of excitement among two-wheeler buyers in India with the launch of the Freedom 125, the world’s first CNG bike. The bike promises higher mileage and lower running costs than petrol-powered bikes and potential buyers are really curious about those promises, evident from the high curiosity among other people when we arrived at the CNG pumps to fill up the tank. 

While we were road testing the Bajaj Freedom 125, once the bike ran out of CNG, we headed to the nearest pump for a top up. The bike’s CNG tank gets a claimed capacity of 2kg and the amount that actually gets filled depends upon the pump’s pressure. Usually, the ideal pressure for filling a vehicle’s CNG tank is 200 bar. The pressure of the CNG pump when we filled up the tank was less than the ideal capacity and as such, we could only fill 1.63kg, costing us about Rs 145. 

Post that, two of our riders tested the Freedom 125 in both city and highway conditions. We managed to travel 140km before the bike ran out of CNG once again. This amounts to a mileage of 85km/kg and a running cost of Rs 1/kilometre. The claimed mileage of the bike in CNG-only mode is 102km/kg but since we could only fill 1.63kg of CNG in the tank, the claimed mileage might be achievable if 2kg of CNG can be filled in the tank. 

The petrol tank has a capacity of 2 litres and Bajaj claims a mileage of 65kmpl in petrol-only mode. The instrument console gets a gauge for the CNG tank while the fuel gauge for the petrol tank has been given a miss. In terms of how it is like to ride the bike, the 125cc, single-cylinder, sloper engine feels very refined and is extremely tractable meaning you can ride it at 25kmph in 5th gear without any juddering. Also, the bike can handle speeds of up to 80kmph without any vibrations creeping in. And the slick gearbox complements the smooth nature of the motor very well.