This Maruti 800 EV Has More Torque Than Skoda Octavia RS!

Maruti 800 is one of the most iconic vehicles in India. With over three decades of production, it had the second-longest production run of all cars in our country, following behind another legend, the Hindustan Ambassador. There are many purists who have pristine examples of the Maruti 800 preserved in their garage, while there are a few who have modified examples in the collection. Here, we have the latter kind, which has been turned into an electric vehicle.

Northway Motorsport EV Conversion Series Season 1 Episode 1 | Hemant Dabhade

The video above has been posted by Hemant Dabhade on his YouTube channel. His firm, Northway Motorsports, specialises in converting regular fossil fuel-powered cars into EVs. Previously, he had also converted a Chevrolet Beat diesel into an EV. Now, he has tried to repeat a similar experiment with a Maruti 800. Hemant has tried to create a documentary-style web series, in which shows the entire conversion process of the car from being petrol-powered to now being battery-propelled. You should go and check out the entire series on his YouTube channel.

In the video, we see that the car was a standard Maruti 800, which was bought for a mere sum of Rs. 75,000 from the used car market. All the components from inside the engine bay were removed from the car. The chassis is untouched, as is the rest of the body. Powering this Maruti 800 EV is a 19 kW electric motor, capable of generating 54 Nm of torque at the crank, with an over-boost function that can push the maximum torque to 70 Nm for a short period of time.

The motor is connected to a single-speed transmission with a 7:1 reduction gear, which boosts torque even further. The peak torque at the wheels is 378 Nm, which is more than what you get from a Skoda Octavia RS 245! That too in a car that weighs a little over 600 kg stock (EV conversion would have altered the weight, but not too much).

The power is stored in a 13.2 kWh battery pack, which consists of a total of 16 batteries. Nine of these batteries are under the bonnet of the car, while the other seven are placed under the front seats. The batteries are mounted low, which gives this car a lowered centre of gravity, thus potentially improving the handling of the car. It takes between four to five hours to charge the battery completely via a twin charging cable setup, and there is no provision for fast charging. The driving range is estimated around 120 km, which is quite decent for a city commuter.