2025 Acko Drive Awards: Bajaj Freedom Wins Entry Bike Category

Entry bikes aren’t very attractive in form or thrilling with respect to performance. However, they are the bread and butter offerings for manufacturers given their sheer volume of sales. The entry bike segment didn’t witness much action in 2024 as it’s dominated by a few specific motorcycles over the years. But one bike challenged the competition, challenged the segment itself and that was the Bajaj Freedom.

Labelled as the world’s first production CNG bike, the Bajaj Freedom was one of the biggest launches of 2024 and it also showcased the engineering prowess of Bajaj Auto. With the CNG tank, Bajaj claimed that the Freedom 125 can halve the running cost of a typical commuter. In our tests, the Bajaj CNG bike returned us an incredible 106 km per kg of CNG. The best part of the bike is how seamless and easy is the transition from ICE to CNG or vice versa when you’re riding it. 

The other aspect of the Bajaj Freedom that needs to be highlighted is that it doesn’t look like a conventional commuter bike with dull styling. The form factor is very different, the LED lighting and the exposed subframe are some nice touches. While the pricing is higher in comparison to commuters, the benefit of low running cost will make up for it eventually. The CNG motorcycle faced competition from the Kinetic E-Luna and the Kinetic Revolt RV1, but for its innovation, for its impact and for its ingenuity, the Bajaj Freedom is the 2025 Acko Drive Entry Bike winner.