Team-BHP
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Strom Motors, a Mumbai-based startup today unveiled an all-new electric car in India - the Strom R3. The compact, two-door electric vehicle uses reverse trike configuration with a single wheel at the rear and to wheels up front. The car has been specifically designed for urban cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. The new Strom R3 is offered in three variants - R3 Pure, R3 Current and R3 Bolt, and two range options - 80 km and 120 km. The Strom R3 will be priced around 3 lakh when it goes on sale later this year.
Powering the Strom R3 is a 13 kW (17.4 bhp) high-efficiency motor that develops 48 Nm of peak torque and the motor comes mated to an integrated single-speed planetary gearbox
The company claims that with a normal charger the Strom R3 can be fully charged in about 6-8 hours, while with a fast charger you can get 80 per cent power in 2 hours.
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This small car in reverse trike configuration, with a claimed running cost of 0.4/km, wold be a boon in our congested urban areas.
Spec comparison with the current electric and compact car.
Source:
Strom Motors Car & Bike
The Strom R3 gets Keyless Entry, Park Assist, Rear Camera, Power Windows and 3 Point Seat-Belts as standard feature.
The three available variants will be R3 Pure, R3 Current and R3 Bolt. The top R3 Bolt variant gets 120Km/charge range, AC with Climate Control, 7" Touchscreen Infotainment System, Customisable User Interface and Voice-Activated Features, Sunroof, Dual-Tone Paint scheme etc.
Somehow, the front resembles Mahindra E20 IMHO. Looks like DC did a customisation job on the E2O and Strom took the inspiration from there. stupid:
Those Alloys look good in the side profile...
Rear Three Quarters...
The Rear houses the Charging Point (with a Bike tank like lockable cover) and Number Plate with Illumination light.
The car will be available by November 2018 and will undergo ARAI homologation in 6-8 weeks from now. At about 3 Lacs for the base variant, it will be much cheaper than Mahindra E2O. If they can keep the top variant under 5 Lacs, then it will be a good city runabout for short drives and may get many buyers. There are Front and Rear Storage Compartments as well.
Awaiting more images and details in the near future. Somehow I can not see any front windshield Wiper and Washer. The ORVMs look like the ones in Bolero.
Somehow, practicality seems to have been thrown out of that crooked window along with aesthetics and finish too. It is rather pointless to spend on marketing of a half-baked product, no matter how unique or innovative it is on paper. If the much more practical E2O+ is unable to crack the nascent electric car market, then this one might end up like the huge wave of Chinese electric scooters that were being sold about a decade ago.
I have seen old generation Reva I in places like Mussoorie. It goes up and down steep slopes easily. This one too has a Single Speed Gearbox and Brake Energy Regeneration System, you never know people in places with narrow roads and parking problems might invest in something like this. Just saw the website and noticed that the rear wheel is R17. I would like to at least test drive this contraption to see how a reverse-trike in electric format drives and looks. Can be an apt replacement for my Nano as a city runabout...
Quote:
Originally Posted by aravind.anand
(Post 4383589)
Somehow, practicality seems to have been thrown out of that crooked window along with aesthetics and finish too. It is rather pointless to spend on marketing of a half-baked product, no matter how unique or innovative it is on paper. If the much more practical E2O+ is unable to crack the nascent electric car market, then this one might end up like the huge wave of Chinese electric scooters that were being sold about a decade ago.
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Agree, it looks horrible.
The primary reason for the failure of E2O was a ex-showroom price of >6L. The E2O Plus starts at 7.46L.
This could manage good numbers as it starts at 3L.
Does anyone else feel that they should have gone with a different front look. A trike with a front that resembles a normal boxy car doesn't seem to gel that well to me. A sportier and more compact design would have looked much better.
The idea and implementation is definitely the need of the hour, but I feel a sportier version might find more takers in the market.
The front end looks so Dilip Chabbaria ish, has he done something to this?
This has no chance of success, the fit and finish, the 3 wheeled look and last a super unknown brand name, all negatives in one soup will be too much for a customer to digest!
They should turn it around and make a auto rickshaw out of it. Looks really bad and seems hand painted. I think people would like to have a normal looking car with the drivetrain being electric. Why would you need something that looks like this ?
At 3 lacs the three wheel setup is bound to fail .
Even if it's priced significantly lower than the Reva ,
Battery powered vehicles are still the niche here .
So , for the kind of people ( read environment conscious ) that this is targeted at , a three wheel setup will not seem attractive .
After seeing all those crashes of the Reliant Robin on "Mr. Bean" Series, I am really skeptical about the success of this 3-wheeled body style.
The carmaker shall have a steep uphill climb (pun intended :P) to prove the reliability of both the body and the motor.
I personally feel it's a DOA.
India en-masse is still not a very postive market for 3 wheelers as private vehicles. Every owner will be ridiculed with "Bro, auto hi le leta..." I just hope it doesn't fall in the same perception trap as the Tata Nano.
While many plausible reasons for the skepticism have been expressed in previous posts, I am also concerned about the safety/stability, especially if there was a side impact.
I have seen many accidents in Pune involving collisions by two-wheelers on the sides of four-wheelers and was wondering about how the Strom-R3 would stand-up to it. No doubt, the manufacturers must have taken this into consideration, but I would still be wary.
For electric cars to succeed, they need to stop 'being different'. EVs need to look the same as regular cars and offer the same practicality. Having 2 doors & 3 wheels doesn't help that.
I don't think this product has any future in India, but that is still a secondary thought. Prima facie, this company looks like just another startup that has created a demo piece with no manufacturing experience or capacity, vendor base etc. Ather Energy showed a lot more promise, and still hasn't rolled out its EVs, despite having Hero as an investor & building a simpler 2-wheeler.
Long way off, guys. I wish them luck, but they're going to have to do more than showcase just one prototype to win my belief.
Quote:
Originally Posted by suku_patel_22
(Post 4383558)
This small car in reverse trike configuration
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I don't think this will be categorised as a proper car due to the regulatory requirements. They'll try to bypass it.
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Originally Posted by humyum
(Post 4383659)
The front end looks so Dilip Chabbaria ish, has he done something to this?
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rl: rl:
Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO
(Post 4384205)
For electric cars to succeed, they need to stop 'being different'. EVs need to look the same as regular cars and offer the same practicality. Having 2 doors & 3 wheels doesn't help that.
I don't think this product has any future in India, but that is still a secondary thought. Prima facie, this company......
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That's just it - 'being different' to attract eyeballs is good practice, but not such a good idea for garnering sales. And Humyum's DC dig is not misplaced:D!
Motoring annals are replete with deeply "different" products which bit the dust at the launch itself. Had it offered a striking feature - say a range of 300km/charge - it would attract more than just eyeballs. But as it is, it is just an also-ran.
Got these pictures of the Strom R3 on WhatsApp. I must say , the company has a lot of guts to launch something like this in market which has rejected the Nano for being 'too cheap' .
Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO
(Post 4384205)
For electric cars to succeed, they need to stop 'being different'. EVs need to look the same as regular cars and offer the same practicality. Having 2 doors & 3 wheels doesn't help that.
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Completely agree! Nobody wants to drive around daily in a contraption like this. One of the Tesla's main draw is that they look like regular cars and not some weird prototype .
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