[volkman10]

Originally Posted by adisag

If it is for the vehicle as a whole, does E-Trio have a tie up with MSIL to provide brand new unregistered donor vehicles without the engines (similar to the Jayem, Tata Motors tie-up)?

E-Trio doesn't seem to have divulged any such tie-ups.

E-trio is currently working with technology guidance from an R&D team from San Francisco, which is headed by Stanford alumni. In the long run, E Trio is planning to get kit approvals for other fast-moving models in India and are currently in discussions with some leading car manufacturing companies from Japan and Thailand.

Link

[GTO]

Kits imported from China - I guess it was only a matter of time. Expect many more to offer such conversions once EVs gain a bit of popularity.

Just be warned. Like LPG & CNG kits:

1. You'll get what you pay for.

2. Installation & part quality will be key to safety & reliability.

3. Factory fit is factory fit and will always be worth the premium.

I wish these guys the best, but am always wary of fresh new companies that make tall claims (e.g. 1000 cars / month, "already in discussions with many Japanese and Thai carmakers", name-dropping Stanford etc.).

[av8er]

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[TSourav]

I appreciate the spirit of innovation that these guys have displayed. It is always great to see young people trying to innovate and invent.

However I am skeptical on the effective impact that this innovation will bring in. Lets say I have a mid-life Alto. It has a small gasoline engine, fairly frugal and reliable. Now shall I spend some money(anything beyond 20K would be a considerable percentage of the car's market value) to convert it to an EV and lose the following:
1. Maruti Service centre support
2. Ability to drive any distance more than 150 km. Nowadays in the big Indian metros, 150km can be easily covered in a day if you want to pick up your friend from the airport and then go around town for shopping and hopping.
3. Ability to drive beyond 80-90 kmph. Nowadays the roads in the cities has become better and sometimes if makes sense to cruise along in 90-100 kmph safely with in town.

And the what do I gain?
1. Very cheap running cost. However, I need to break even the cost of conversion in order to get any financial advantage. I should also add the reduced resale value (modified/converted EV still has a lower resale/public faith) to the conversion cost.
2. The 'green' feeling. Though the 'green'-ness is questionable when you factor in the battery generation CO2 footprint and charging station CO2 footprint.

Also, even if this custom-ev conversion tech is refined by these guys in the coming future, there is very slim chance of this making any real sense because:
1. The real EVs will be more affordable. So folks will buy a new EV than to retrofit their IC engine cars.
2. The real EVs will have more range/power than what this custom-ev conversion will be able to achieve. This is because the real EVs are designed to be EVs from grounds up and thus out perform a custom made eV from a IC engined car.

Thus, I do not see much impact in this innovation.

[Holyghost]

Originally Posted by TSourav

Thus, I do not see much impact in this innovation.

Neither do I see this making any impact. More over their website screams juggad. More of a DIY using cheap Chinese components. No technical info about batteries, motor, mounting options.



But this will become main stream once our Courts/Govts starts banning ICE cars for various reasons. It would work out much cheaper to convert your ICE car to electric than to scrap your old car and be forced to buy an Electric vehicle. OEMs will start supplying retrofit kits to convert your vehicle. Bosch is already working on such systems.

[TSourav]

Originally Posted by Holyghost

But this will become main stream once our Courts/Govts starts banning ICE cars for various reasons.

I guess not. The big daddies of car industry have got a very strong lobby with the government. They are big employers and driver for growth. There will not be any blanket ban which will affect the car industry in near future in India.

Check this: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-r...-idUSKCN1N00ZX

First let us move out of conventional powered power stations to renewable energy, and then we can think of electric cars. I think ICE cars are here to stay for good.

[adisag]

“We buy old cars, refurbish them, remove all the petrol or diesel related components and install electric kits. That’s at the essence of it. The process itself is quite complex, especially integrating the electric components. Nonetheless, over a period of more than two years, we have mastered the process,” says Sathya Yalamanchalli, the 32-year-old Founder of E-Trio, speaking to The Better India.


"After charging it for a full five hours, your car can run for 150 km. "



"For the time being, e-Trio is looking at business-to-business (B2B) sales"


"e-Trio will charge their clients a little under $10,000 (Rs 7.18 lakh) for the entire process of retrofitting one vehicle"


Some very telling information quoted from this article.



Its bound to be dead on arrival at that price point.
Seriously 7.2 Lakhs to resurrect a 7 year old Alto



Atleast the e2o gives you a brand new (and fairly hi-tech) car for similar money - why in their right mind would anyone prefer this retrofit over the e2o...
Not even getting into why you would want to consider such basic EV's at these price points to begin with.

[joybhowmik]

I am doing some research on the subject of EVs in general, and I just stumbled on this thread.
I agree with previous posts:
The price point @ 7.2L is reminiscent of ME's E2O and eVerito.
The comparison does not pale there. The range @ 150 km is similar to that of the E2O (100km/140km). Further , as others have pointed out - a car with a new set of batteries will probably deliver a range such as claimed, so forgive me for asking:

1. What is the delivered range when 25% , 50% and 75% of the 3000 charging cycles are up? How does the delivered range change for an e-Alto vs an e-Dzire?
2. Where does one go for Service? I don't think E-trio for power-train, and MS for rest of mechanicals is really going to be convenient. Especially because, there is no official announcement from MS on a tie-up with MS.
3. will the MORTH allow donor vehicles RCs to be endorsed for the modification in all RTO's pan-India?
4. Will the Hon'ble Supreme Court and NGT, allow such vehicles to be given fitness renewals when their 10 year (diesel-donor) or 15 year (petrol-donor) tenures are up (after conversion)?
5. Will E-Trio provide a discount on the price of the conversion, necessitated by

   Government Incentives to adopt EVs (Yes I know current policy is unclear)
   Fair market value of Parts removed from donor vehicle in the process of conversion

6. Does E-Trio have any plan to indigenise production of imported components? Basically - I'm asking if they are in for the long haul or one of these flash in the pan companies?

[volkman10]

India's first retrofitted EV registered at Telangana RTO.

The car conversion cost is upwards of Rs 3 lakh going up to Rs 5 lakh.

Ideal for cab drivers and cab aggregators, the vehicles will cost 90 paise per km (operational cost) in terms of electricity consumed.

The electric Alto could have a range of 150km while Wagon will run 180km on a full charge. This could go up in future. For safety reasons, the speed is locked at 80 km per hour. More batteries can be added to customers looking for more range. The vehicles have regular chargers which can be plugged in the customer’s home wall socket.

Set up in May 2016, E-Trio became the first company in India to get Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) approval for retrofitted car kits to go with Maruti Alto and Wagon R

these retrofitted electric cars do not require gears, come with swift acceleration and can travel up to 150km on a single charge. The company's factory has a capacity of converting 1,000 cars per month. E-Trio had also revealed that it is ready to sell kits and retrofitted cars in the market, while the retrofitted kits have been sourced from China and Korea, the ‘Controller’ (for the kit) is indigenously developed

Link

Link1

[tarik.arora]

This is crude but interesting as well. More true for B2B conversion. Since these guys have ARAI approval, i will trust them with the kit. I do have a few questions though:

a) Is the 3-5 lacs price inclusive of the battery?
b) What is the battery replacement cost?
c) How will the regular maintenance happen?
d) What happens to the drive-train of the donor vehicle? Is the kit price in exchange of the engine/gearbox?
e) Is the 150/180 km range as per ARAI test cycle or are these real world numbers?
f) Wont this conversion affect the vehicle stability? More true for cars like wagon-r with high COG?

[Aroy]

What is not evident from the article

. Is the existing engine and gear box taken out and replaced with an electric motor?
. Is there a provision for fitting extra batteries?
. How if at all does an AC work. If there how much battery will it consume per hour?

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by GTO

Kits imported from China - I guess it was only a matter of time. Expect many more to offer such conversions once EVs gain a bit of popularity.

The main part of the cost are the Lithium batteries, where the Lithium almost always comes from the Land of the Bamboo Curtain. So this is but logical. that the Chinese will play a major role (direct or indirect) in these developments. In any case not too many EV conversions will get rid of the 'dead weight' of the conventional drive train. So this is worth watching.

[ramnaresh_2000]

Originally Posted by naut

Its great to see innovation in the EV space. Would be grateful to Hyderabad bhpians if they can gather some more info on the product on offer like pricing, type of battery used, warranty, servicing details etc. Also, do they give retrofitted cars or do we have to provide them a car for retrofitting?

A test drive report would be like icing on the cake!

I had seen a video on youtube, they claimed INR 8,00,000 - 9,00,000 for new car and INR 4,00,000 for retrofitting. However, they are currently working with commercial customers like Uber/Ola etc and not general public. Lithium Ion battery is used.

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

I am sorry but this sounds like a glorified juggad. What about the safety of the batteries? What about the safety of the car with the added weight of batteries? How will the batteries fare during a crash? How will the passengers fare in a crash? The batteries are known to catch fire or spill acid during a crash. Has the car been reinforced? Etc etc.

A top speed of 80 would mean that realistically the car would be comfortable doing around 60kmph which is too low even in the city. What about the range with A/C? Would it even have an A/C?

I am most worried about the safety aspect given that the base cars are unsafe to start with. Tesla does well in crash test because its built from grounds up to be an electric car. I just dont trust or see how this electric retro fit is going to work well.

I believe they are using Lithium Ion batteries and not the typical traditional Acid batteries. People rarely driver 60kmph in Hyderabad and during peak hours it will be hardly 20-30kmph, so I think for city rides these retrofitted EV's are OK. I am sure they are crude now during their initial batch, but even Activa was crude initially and later it evolved to Activa 5G which everyone loves to buy.

It's a start, and I am sure people who have more than 2 vehicles and having an old Alto/Omini/Gypsy lying around will be interested. Imagine the market it created, they can attract Chevy customers, discontinued model customers like Matiz/Ritz/A-Star/Sumo/Santro/Accent/Ikon and maybe an Ambassador. The scope is limitless.

Commercial vehicle owners, like maybe a factory owner who does regular deliveries of their goods within city will be potential targets. Flood affected vehicles can be converted, accident cars and also the scrap cars can be converted.

I think this will be a huge success, but again this is my personal opinion. Only the customers who got their vehicles retrofitted can comment on pain areas and practical issues.

[fazayal]

Can someone do the math as to in which conditions this thing is going to make economic sense? I can't make sense out of this.

[Shreyans_Jain]

Originally Posted by fazayal

Can someone do the math as to in which conditions this thing is going to make economic sense? I can't make sense out of this.

What price does one put on the refinement, the zero engine noise, the no gear drive, the instant torque and the not having to worry about regular service?