Turn Your Maruti Alto Or WagonR Into An Electric Car With The E-Trio Kit

With fuel prices hitting the roof, a cost-conscious market like India is definitely positive about the idea of electric mobility. Explains the blossoming of numerous electric vehicle startups. Even mainstream manufacturers are now into it. For now, electric vehicles aren’t really a practical alternative which can replace conventionally powered solutions, given the lack of infrastructure. But whenever that happens, what will we do with so many smokes spewing metal cases? Someone thought about it and came up with the idea of E-Trio.

What is it? It’s a company which strips a conventionally powered car of its gasoline guzzling components and retrofits it with electric technology. As of now, they have ARAI approved, retrofitted Maruti Altos and WagonRs which have been fitted with this technology and have been tested for the past two years successfully. These electric cars do not require gears and promise swift and smooth acceleration. The approved Alto (also called EV150) and Wagon R can run up to 150 kilometres on a single charge. E-trio says it has imparted some of the highest standards in terms of safety and a maximum noise control riding capacity.

Charging time? For a full recharge, it’ll take Five hours if you plug into a normal socket, or an hour using fast charging tech. With a top speed of 80 kph, these retrofitted small Marutis can do the 0 – 60 kph run in 5 seconds. The company says these cars can be charged anytime, anywhere and will be easy to maintain. They also have a retrofitted Maruti Dzire (EV180), which takes 7 hours for a full charge (1 hour using a fast charger) and can go up to 180 kms on a full battery. These cars get a fully-digital instrument console, regenerative braking, LFP batteries and anti-slip control which assists when the car is going downhill.

With a capacity of 1000 cars per month, E-trio factory is ready to sell kits and retrofitted cars in the market. Their kits have been sourced from China and Korea while the Controller is in-house development. The company’s immediate goal is to roll out at least 5000 cars in the next year. E-trio is currently working with technical guidance from an R&D team from SFO which is headed by Stanford alumni. In the long run, E Trio is planning big and is on the job to get kit approvals for other fast-moving models in India. They are currently in discussions with some leading car manufacturing companies from Japan and Thailand.

Sathya Yalamanchili, Founder of the start-up, said, “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.”