[karlosdeville]

Anything known about the Vidyut 24 electric bike?

[KartikeyaL]

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

Anything known about the Vidyut 24 electric bike?

Nice find, good to see it had a dealer in Jaipur as well.

Google threw up this on Vidyut 24

Source

[pksnathan]

Originally Posted by KartikeyaL

Nice find, good to see it had a dealer in Jaipur as well.

Google threw up this on Vidyut 24

Source

Attachment 2160947

I remember to have seen an advertisement in The Hindu newspaper if my memory serves me oorrect in 1981 about the launch of an electric scooter in Bangalore by a company called as Electromobile India Limited.Is this the one?

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

DKW Tata
Attachment 1773333
There was a brief proposal from the Tatas to build a DKW.

A nicer clear image of the DKW car from the Tata Central Archives newsletter

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

Atlanta
In 1961 an attempt was made to build a scooter dubbed the 'Atlanta', in South India. More reading here.

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

Some more material on the Atlanta scooter - apologies but I do not recall the source.

What appears to be a present day picture of the Atlanta scooter.

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

More recently there have been so many more, like...[list][*]Quantam - the convertible sports car proposal

Originally Posted by awini

the Quantum was to come with an optional diesel engine! i might have a brochure which i got from the auto expo that year, another serious proposal was to get the De la Chappelle here, ask Gautam sometime, he was heavily involved.

A detailed report on the Quantum roadster from a 1997 Auto India issue.

[karlosdeville]

Who remembers these local conversions on Maruti 800s? Instant sedan upgrade

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

Tempo
Some terrific details on a small car protype from Bajaj-Tempo are recorded in Adil Darukhanawallas seminal work "Classics and Thoroughbreds". The car survives in the Tempo museum in Germany.

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

Some nicer pictures here

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/vinta...ml#post5016076 (History of Cars in India)

An original leaflet for the Tempo Mini Car, from the book 'Navalmal Kundanmal Firodia'

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

The Aravind
One particularly interesting car that we seen a mention of now and again was the 'Aravind' - another home grown effort that did raise a lot of eyebrows. Of course the project didn't take off, but a little known fact is that there atleast 3 separate attempts. Not much is known about the first two.

The first attempt seems to have been in 1959, using a 1947 Studebaker Champion chassis, and a Mercedes Diesel engine. Details courtesy this great page.
Attachment 1772640

A picture and some details shared by the Aravind page on the 'Iddy Champion'

[karlosdeville]

Can anyone tell us more about the Aravalli scooters? I don't think we listed it here before

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

SAIL/Sipani
I believe that Sunrise Automobiles (SAIL) made the fibreglass 3 wheeler Badal in Bangalore, and then sold to Sipani. Engine was a 150/200cc Lambretta rickshaw engine? Subsequent models were the Dolphin (based on the Reliant Kitten) and Montana (4 door version) and Mondata D1 (diesel version). I do not know much about these products, they were probably more popular in the South. Over to the experts to shed more light.

More reading on the Badal, Dolphin and Montana.

SAIL Badal
Attachment 1773914

A 4 wheeler was also envisioned, and I believe this was the product, and one survives in Pune.
Attachment 1773915
Attachment 1773926

Some rarely seen images and insight into the Badal project can be seen here

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

HAL
We have heard of atleast 2 attempts from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bangalore, at building a people's car.

The first was named the Pingle, named after Pingle Madhusudan Reddy, popularly known as PM Reddy, who designed and engineered the car in the 1950s. The car was recently in the news here. If we look closely we can see two concepts of door layouts - suicide or conventional front doors.

Attachment 1768120
Attachment 1768121
Attachment 1771532
Attachment 1771533

A second attempt was made in 1964 apparently.
Attachment 1768122

Thankfully one of the long lost Pingle cars seems to have survived, though barely



https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/88865700.cms

[karlosdeville]

More pictures of the scrap Pingle prototype can be seen here

Some more details emerge. I am not clear if they are actually two cars reported. Hope they get the attention and care they deserve.

[karlosdeville]

An electric Jeep project in Kolhapur, as far back as 1950

[karlosdeville]

Some home grown by the VRDE at Ahmednagar on special projects primarily for the forces. Wonder if any of them survive.