A Hyderabad-based start-up – E-Trio – has just come up electric kits for two of India’s largest selling cars – the Alto and the WagonR. In other words, this means that the petrol engines of the Maruti Alto and WagonR can be swapped for an electric powertrain, making them electric cars.
The company has also received approval from Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) for offering retro fitted electric kits. This gives the kit the necessary legal backing for use on regular roads. Effectively, retro-fitted electric cars may become as common as cars running aftermarket LPG and CNG kits.
It’s easy to note the various advantages of such a retro-fit electric powertrain kit. Owners wanting to opt for an electric car will no longer have to buy a brand new electric car. They can instead convert their regular petrol/diesel/CNG/LPG powered cars into battery powered cars.
This will work out much cheaper than buying a brand new car. Such a move will also reduce pollution if a large number of car owners decide to dump the internal combustion engine for electric powertrains. Thirdly, the cost of maintenance will drastically reduce as an electric powertrain has much fewer parts than an internal combustion engine.
Also, a retro-fitted electric car will be a lot more comfortable to drive as cars with electric powertrains are generally automatic. All in all, if this concept takes off in India, it will be quite a game changer. For now, exact details on the range and performance of the electric powertrain kits are yet to be revealed fully.
E-Trio claims that the Maruti Alto Electric and WagonR Electric will have a range of 150 kilometers per charge which is sufficient for city use. The company also claims that it’s working on other kits that will give retro-fitted electric cars a range of up to 250 kilometers, which is quite decent for most purposes.
Meanwhile, Sathya Yalamanchili, Founder of the start-up, had this to say,
Retrofitting is the way to go and need of the hour and these smart cars currently are the most efficient and economical cars compared to our counterparts in the market. Our vision is to create e-Mobility which inspires & nurtures pollution free India. We believe that affordable range is the key to helping electro-mobility achieve a breakthrough in the near future.