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Originally Posted by RedViper I have a 15-year-old Santro Xing that has clocked 175000 KMs. When such conversions are available for Santro, I might consider this. This might just work well for office commute and city runabouts. I also have a Creta CRDi for those road trips. |
Perfect situation for you. Once you get the Santro converted all you will have to worry about is suspension parts and tyres and wiper blades.
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Originally Posted by rpmmachine Very good initiative and wish them all the success but 5 lakhs is too much for someone to invest in this.
One can run approx 1Lakh KM more on Diesel ( less on petrol) itself with this amount of money and no need to charge for 6-7 hours. Anyways it is all about preference and choice.
Any inputs on how the RC will be altered/updated and will the vehicle be allotted a Green plate or what needs to be done further to change all this?
They can always tie-up with Maruti or other companies and the result will be low-cost EV for Mass market. |
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Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain Agree, 5lakhs is pretty steep for an untested retrofit. But with petrol at Rs105+ in most of the country, (let’s assume 100), you get 5000 liters of petrol for 5L. That means you can drive 60000km at 12kmpl. That’s it. Add to that whatever you’ll spend on maintenance. The cost of petrol has really changed the cost calculations, man. Heavy users can recover the cost in a couple of years. |
Well put. Not to forget that the cost of fuel is rising and the govt has confirmed that they aren't going to do anything to reduce the price and only look for alternatives. It may be 5K liters of fuel at this price but may end up with only 4k liters at the end of 5 years.
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Originally Posted by warrioraks If these guys can do it for 5 lac's, is there a reason for Maruti not to have Dzire EV in their portfolio. |
As far as Maruti is concerned, I think they had shelved the electric Wagon R itself. (Or has it changed ?). We cant really comment that this company is wrong because Maruti is not doing it. Its just like saying Tesla is doing things wrong because the largest car maker GM is not doing it. (in 2010)
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Originally Posted by warrioraks Coming to this company (Northway) - I am lost on what’s the target customer base here. The kit is too expensive. My guess is, they need to sell it at a fraction of the advertised cost to get any decent numbers. Their main competition is the CNG conversion kits available in the after-market which sells for less than a lac typically.
Not sure if this is a viable business in the current scenario. |
I think the company is perfectly timed and they kit seem well pet together too. Ever since stuntfreak came up with the Maruti Dzire conversion thread I have been hoping that he will come up with some conversion kit with service provided.
As far as the customer base goes I think he is very smart with the two options that he has provided.
Dzire -- Thousands of taxi operators in the city of Pune who use a Dzire. The life of a petrol car in the taxi lines is around 5-6 years where they run it for at-least 6L kms. They typically do 200-300kms in the city in a day. Do note:
After 6 years, Most will have one engine job done in this time. Imagine giving that car a new lease of life after this. Voila car with expense of 1-1.5 per km with no regular servicing cost other than suspension and wiper blades.
ACE -- A very potent CV for small and odd jobs. Go to any industrial area and you will see 100 of these available for hire. They are very important within the industrial area because they help get small job works done across the industries. Wanna transport a 100kg load 5 kms away, no problem, make a call, guy will be at your gate in 5 mins flat, loaded and delivered in less than 30 mins, including paperwork handled by the driver. All billing at the end of month for convenience. Cost you ask? 200 bucks or less. Even Uber cannot provide this kind of service.
The ACE driver will happily drive the ace for 15 years of more without replacing it. Imagine what he can do if he can get a ACE EV with 300 kms range and not have to worry about diesel prices. He will happily ask for an ACE EV if it was available.
CNG kits:
As far as CNG kits are concerned I can share my personal experience. I got mine converted in the mid of 2019. So less than 2 years of usage and 15kms.
My car Sx4 used to give me 9 Km/litre in the city. Thats Rs. 9 per km when fuel was at 80 bucks and would have been 12 bucks today at Rs. 105 a litre.
I currently pay around Rs. 4.6 / km (CNG + Petrol combined) City driving
Here are the problems that I face.
1. Tank Range is only 160 in the city of pune. Its irritating. Every fourth day I have to be at the pump.
2. The CNG is never on the way to your house or office, you always have to take a detour.
3. CNG pump in the city always have a queue.
4. I always go to the pump after 9 so that there is no queue.
5. Ok this is me nitpcking but I hate it. The pump attendant never opens the hood for you. You have to get down and open it for him. I hate doing it.
6. Whenever I am travelling out of the city I never get CNG. So no cost benefits there.
Moreover I lost the boot space which when doing airport runs to Mumbai is irritating. Now I borrow a car for that.
Now given all the issues that I have faced, the one thing that I would have done is got an electric conversion done than CNG. Only I would have asked for range of 350 kms realistic range. Hence I dont have to worry about aiport runs between Pune and Mumbai. And going by the Dzire convrtion thread, It is possible.
Moreover I would have to never visit fuel pump for city driving ever again.
One thing that I will not be able to do is my fav GOA trips in the electric car. But thats just once a year or twice max. Also max 4 day affair for me. Guess I can just rent then.
I think stuntfreak has come up with a really good plan and has very good technical expertise to offer.
As a fellow BHPian wishing him all the success in the world.