Maruti Suzuki may be two-three years away from launching its first electric car, but Pune-based Northway Motorsport may have an option for those who don’t wish to wait. Hemank Dabhade, who runs the ICE vehicle to EV conversion specialist company and has converted the Chevrolet Beat, Maruti 800 and Honda Activa among others into electric vehicles, has released a video of this Maruti Dzire Electric on YouTube and talked about it on a Team-BHP forum post.
The Maruti Dzire EV is based on a Maruti Dzire petrol that originally weighed 947 kg. While ICE vehicles converted into EVs tend to be quite heavier, the Maruti Dzire EV is only 3 kg heavier and weighs 950 kg. Northway Motorsport worked on three different battery packs for this model, 13 kWh, 15 kWh, and 18 kWh. The location of the battery pack is in the fuel tank and transmission tunnel area. The drive motor generates 15 kW (continuous)/35 kW (peak) power and 170 Nm (at shaft)/842 Nm (at wheels) torque.
Video Source: youtube.com/Hemank Dabhade
With the exception of some high-end EVs like the Porsche Taycan, most EVs available in the market today have a single-speed automatic transmission. This Maruti Dzire Electric, on the other hand, makes use of a 5-speed manual transmission (with a lightened flywheel). It is claimed to offer “fantastic torque” in the first gear, be comfortably usable in the second and third gears in daily driving, and return a very impressive range at high speeds without compromising on torque in the higher gears.
The Maruti Dzire EV has a top speed of 160 km/h and can achieve a company-claimed range of 250 km. The speedometer has been converted to show the percentage charge level, and so, the marking between 0-100 km/h is the SoC (State of Charge). The forum post concludes by saying that the Maruti Dzire EV “turned out to be an amazing car,” and the necessary government permissions have been taken to legally drive it on public roads.