Bengaluru Couple Has Created An Electric Conversion Kit That Turns Any Scooter To A Hybrid

Despite the slowdown in the automobile industry, premium scooter segment in the country saw a 5% growth year-on-year in the first 5 months of the ongoing financial year. With close to 50 lakh units being sold, these IC engine vehicles ultimately contribute to the vehicular emissions plaguing the country with its adverse effects. But what if these could be electrified to eliminate, or at least lower these harmful exhausts. A Bengaluru-based startup seems to have the answer.

Meladath Auto Components was formed in 2016 by Rakesh Meladath Karunakaran and his wife Winnie Gangadharan to produce aftermarket conversion kits for petrol scooters. The retrofittable e-kit is able to convert any regular scooter into an electric-hybrid scooter, powering some portion of its commute with a purely electric source and thus eliminating any harmful emissions in the process.

39-year-old Karunakaran is a former Mahindra and Mahindra employee and has a different take on the ongoing transition to electric vehicles. He rightfully points out that putting more EVs to use will not solve the problem of existing IC engine vehicles and will only lead to an increased vehicle density on the roads. ¡°This will put tremendous pressure on the limited infrastructure and existing problem of traffic congestion,¡± he explained in a report.

Representative Image: Economic Times

As a solution, he came up with the e-conversion kit that enables a scooter to run on both electric and petrol mode separately. As per Karunakaran, such a hybrid scooter is able to cover around 40 km completely on electric mode just after one charge. It can consecutively be driven on petrol mode.

Interestingly, the conversion kit does not require any fabrication or structural changes to a scooter. Karunakaran claims that it can be put on a scooter in mere 30 seconds and that the entire process is reversible without any welding or cutting. Which means that if a scooter is to be converted back to a pure petrol one, the electrification kit can easily be removed from it.

The electrification kit can be fitted on almost all the scooters with 10-inch and 12-inch steel wheel. It is powered by a lithium-ion battery that can easily be charged at home like that of many electric scooters and hence does not necessarily need a charging station for its use.

A notable advantage of the kit over a pure electric offerings is the ability to run the scooter even after the battery is out of charge. Such a use completely eliminates the range anxiety in users, as they can easily refuel petrol in such a vehicle if the battery runs out of charge. Considering the lack of electric charging network in India, this is a huge boon.

Representative Image: Economic Times

The conversion kit has a notable effect on the emissions of the retrofitted scooters too. As per Karunakaran, the kit can being down the Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions of a vehicle by as much as 15% during its run.

Meladath has not yet commercialised the conversion kit but is in talks with dealerships across the country under a registered brand 'Ezee Hybrid'. The idea is to retrofit as many scooters with the kits as possible, possibly in partnership with a major OEM in the country.

Next in line for Meladath is to come up with a pure electric scooter as a Made in India product. Almost all the components of the scooter will be indigenous.

It is interesting to see startups in the automobile industry come up with unique aftermarket products. A similar conversion kit by Telangana based E-trio Automobiles recently gained limelight as it targeted to convert the existing IC engine cars to pure electric vehicles. The ARAI approved kits by the firm saw a similar effect as the CNG-based kits in vehicles.

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