After E-trio Automobiles received ARAI approval, in a period of just 6 months, the start-up has registered a retrofitted Maruti Suzuki Alto EV.

After the government issued a draft notification allowing ICE-vehicles to be retrofitted with full-electric kits, in barely 10 months, India’s first retrofitted fully electric vehicle has been registered in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh.

Autocar Professional, a publication house on 12th November 2018 proclaimed that a start-up based in Telangana, called E-Trio Automobiles has been working on launching the retrofitted EV car kits in India. E-Trio Automobiles is known to be the first company in India who has successfully got the ARAI approval for retrofitted car kits in Maruti Alto and Wagon R hatchbacks. And recently, the company’s founder Sathya Yalamanchili has successfully got the necessary approval and has thereby registered the brand’s first car, a 2006 Maruti Suzuki Alto, at the Regional Transport Office (RTO) in Telangana.

According to the company’s experts, these retrofitted electric cars do not require gears and have a swift acceleration. They can travel up to 150km on a single charge. The company claims to convert 1,000 cars per month into retrofitted EVs.

E-Trio had announced that the company is ready to sell kits and retrofitted cars in the market. Though the retrofitted kits have been sourced from China and Korea, the ‘Controller’ for the kit has been locally developed.

The company has been testing the retrofitted cars for the past two years and its primary goal is to turn out at least 5,000 cars in the financial year 2019-20.