Author: Bunny Punia

Toyota is all set to launch the all-new Hyryder SUV in India. With launch slated for 1st of July, official teasers are now out. At the same time, we do know a few important pointers about this hybrid mid-size SUV. Do remember, this is Toyota is coming up with an all-new product after ages! Will this help them get a sizeable market share?

Made with Maruti

Both Toyota and Maruti have jointly developed this new product. The companies have been working closely for years now, with Toyota selling re-branded Baleno (Glanza) and Brezza (Urban Cruiser) in India. They will soon sell the Ciaz and Ertiga under new names as well. Maruti too will launch their own version of the Hyryder later this year. As we understand, production might only happen at Toyota’s plant in Karnataka.

Competes with Creta & Seltos

Both Maruti and Toyota do not have any options in the Rs 11-16 lakh bracket of mid-size SUVs. This segment has products like the Hyundai Creta, Kia Seltos, MG Astor among others. While Maruti has the Breeza (new coming on the 30th June) and Toyota offers the Urban Cruiser, these are in the Rs 7-10 lakh bracket. The Hyryder will have unique features that will give it an edge over other mid-size SUVs. The only factor where the Korean offerings are better is in terms of offering a Diesel engine option.

Proper Hybrid Tech

Yes, the Hyryder will not be a mild hybrid like we see in current Maruti offerings. Toyota already sells hybrids worldwide and the Hyryder will be the only / first SUV in its segment to come with an EV only mode too. If the battery has enough power, you will be able to drive the Hyryder on electric power only. This is much like what we see in the new Honda City hybrid. Ofcourse the pure EV mode lasts a few km only but in urban runs, helps bump up fuel economy by a huge margin. The battery for the hybrid set-up gets charged when the petrol engine runs, plus of course during braking via regeneration of energy.

Will get AWD (all-wheel drive)

Another highlight will be the availability of AWD in the Hyryder. This is where Suzuki’s tech comes into play. The Japanese maker is known for All-Grip AWD system that sends power to all the four wheels as and when required. We are told the Hyryder will get this in the higher versions. This could make it the most affordable AWD 5-door in India.

Feature loaded

The Toyota Hyryder Hybrid will also get ample features including a sunroof, TPMS (tyre pressure monitoring system), HUD (heads up display), connected apps and as many as 6 Airbags. Both manual and automatic transmissions will be on offer and the usual suite of climate control, push button start, Digital display et al will be offered.

Toyota Hyryder Hybrid Prices

We expect the Toyota Hyryder to have a starting price of Rs 10-11 lakh, ex-showroom Delhi. This will be for the manual petrol model with a mild hybrid (SHVS) set-up. The higher versions with full hybrid and automatic might go as high as Rs 16-18 lakh, ex-showroom Delhi.

Well-engineered electric vehicles are finally gaining the attention and acceptance they deserve. However, there is an issue in terms of entry level cost. We do agree that electric cars promise a significant amount of savings in ownership costs. However, when it comes to the initial cost of buying, electric vehicles carry a hefty premium over their IC-engine counterparts. There is a huge demand for electric cars under Rs 10 lakh, as many cost-conscious car buyers look forward to this category.

The government is trying its best to make electric cars affordable by offering subsidies. However, there is still a very limited number of offerings which fulfil the search for electric cars under Rs 10 lakh (well, almost!).

Tata Tigor EV

With a starting price of Rs 12.49 lakh, the Tata Tigor EV doesn’t truly fall in the category of electric cars under Rs 10 lakh. However, the subsidies currently offered by central and state governments do bring the on-road price further down.

The Tigor EV is also available as Xpress-T. This model is essentially the pre-facelifted version of the Tigor EV, now sold exclusively for fleet operators. It has a smaller battery pack and is much more affordable than the Tigor EV.

The Tata Tigor EV is powered by a front-mounted electric motor, which produces 74 PS of power and 170 Nm of torque. The Tigor EV is available with a 26 kWh battery pack, which promises a maximum driving range of 306 km.

Mahindra e-Verito

The Mahindra e-Verito is on sale in the Indian car market for quite some time now. The e-Verito is not as technically well-advanced as the Tigor EV. However, it is currently the most affordable electric car. It is the only genuine offering in the category of electric cars under Rs 10 lakh.

The Mahindra e-Verito is available in the Indian car market in three variants – D2, D4 and D6 – the range of which starts at Rs 10.11 lakh. Taking subsidies into account, even the range-topping variant of the e-Verito comes below Rs 10 lakh. All the three variants of the Mahindra e-Verito are on offer with a front-mounted electric motor. It pumps out 42 PS of maximum power and 91 Nm of maximum torque. The battery on duty here is a 21.2 kWh battery pack, which claims a driving range of 140 km. Due to its dated design in and out and a very limited range, the e-Verito is now out of the radar of most EV buyers.

Proper EV Options

If you are in the market for a proper EV car for you and your family, the options start from Tigor onwards. And then, there is the Nexon EV starting from 14.79 lakh (ex-showroom). At the same time, we want to update you on the upcoming 2023 Auto Expo. This is where a lot of manufacturers will showcase smaller EVs, under the Rs 10 lakh bracket and this will be a revolution for congested cities. Stay tuned to this space for more!

The news of Mahindra prepping up three all-new electric SUVs on the new ‘Born Electric’ platform is not a hidden secret anymore. Mahindra itself has officially teased these three new SUVs in their concept forms on its social media handles. In the latest teaser video, Mahindra has revealed a few more details of the upcoming SUVs, which also shows how the rumoured Mahindra XUV900 Electric will look like.

Mahindra XUV900 Electric Exteriors

Designed at Mahindra Advanced Design Europe (MADE) and helmed by Pratap Bose, Chief Design Officer at Mahindra, the new XUV900 Electric will be designed under the new Gen-X design language. As per the teasers, the new XUV900 Electric concept is expected to have a sloping coupe-like roofline.

Other details include squared wheel arches, aerodynamically-optimized wheels and digital outside rear view mirrors. The previous teaser videos have already revealed that the concepts will have elongated LED light bars at front and rear, forming inverted C-shaped layouts.

Mahindra XUV900 Electric Interiors

A couple of glimpses of the interior of the new Mahindra XUV900 were also visible in the teaser video. In it, we can see that the concept will have a futuristic-looking square-shaped steering wheel. This new steering wheel has the new Mahindra logo in the middle. The driver’s cockpit of the concept also looks new-age with big screens for instrument console and infotainment. In all likelihood, these screens will be full-TFT units. The dashboard will also have LED light bars across the width of the dashboard. The cabin is also previewed with rotary knob in the centre console for drive selector and sporty bucket seats wraparound headrests.

The First Step Of The Journey Ahead

Mahindra will be showcasing all these three concept electric SUVs on 15^th August in their full glory. According to Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director at Mahindra and Mahindra, the UV maker is planning to launch the XUV300 Electric in the first quarter of 2023. He hinted that this new electric SUV will be slightly longer than the current XUV300. In all likelihood, it will retain some of the bits from the Born Electric concepts.

However, when it comes to Mahindra XUV900, the planning is still in the nascent stages. This SUV is carrying an expectation as flagship electric SUV from Mahindra. The XUV900 Electric might arrive in its production form by the end of 2024.

During the ‘Ola Customer Day’ event at its ‘hyperfactory’ in Tamil Nadu, Ola Electric teased what could be its first attempt in making a full-electric car. The official teasers of Ola Electric car released by its CEO Bhavish Aggarwal show what the car will look like.

Details from the teaser images

The teasers give us a hint that the upcoming first-ever Ola electric car will be a D-segment sedan. This car will roughly be the size of a Volkswagen Virtus or Honda City but will have an all-electric powertrain. The teasers hint toward the concept design, in which we can see a smooth-flowing silhouette and roofline. It shows that the upcoming car will shape into a D-segment sedan.

The teaser images also reveal a wide connected LED bar at the front, which engulfs LED headlamps on the sides. Even the rear profile of the Ola Electric car has a similar-looking LED light bar illuminated in red. There are illuminated ‘Ola’ logos – a white logo on the hood and a red logo on the boot.

In addition to the silhouettes of the concept teasers released, Bhavish Aggarwal also tweeted an additional image confirming this insight. In this image, we can see a pixelated image of a blue-coloured car on a TV screen.

Expected mechanical details

Apart from these minuscule design highlights, Ola Electric has not taken off covers from further details. No other details related to the battery and motor setups, interior highlights and features came out yet. Though, this all-electric car might have a big and powerful battery in the range of 70-80 kWh. This battery pack might offer a best-in-class range and performance outputs.

However, the company has indicated that more details will get revealed at a public event scheduled for 15th August. The date also happens to mark the first anniversary of the Ola S1 Pro, the first-ever product from Ola Electric. Though, the CEO has hinted that this first-ever Ola Electric car will hit the roads by the end of 2023.

The Ola S1 Pro gained a lot of wanted and unwanted attention to date. Citing this, it will be interesting to see how this new Ola Electric car shapes up. Given the promising specifications and dimensions of a D-segment sedan, this car will certainly not be a cheap offering. We expect this new electric car to arrive in the range of Rs 20-25 lakh. At this price, will this all-new electric car gain immense attention and acceptance like the S1 Pro scooter? Only time will tell.

The quartet of Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi and Jaguar Land Rover has already launched their niche full-electric SUVs in India. Joining the group is the last remaining ‘mainstream’ luxury car maker Volvo. The Volvo XC40 Recharge will arrive in India in July as a locally-assembled model.

The Volvo XC40 Recharge is already smaller and more affordable than the CBU models like Mercedes-Benz EQC, BMW X1, Audi e-Tron and Jaguar i-Pace. However, sources say that the new Volvo XC40 Recharge will witness local assembly in India. This move by Volvo will further help it to bring the price of XC40 Recharge even lower. Volvo will be locally assembling the XC40 Recharge at its production facility in Hasakote near Bengaluru, Karnataka. Volvo already assembles models like XC40, S60, S90 and XC90 in this production facility.

With this planned move, the Volvo XC40 Recharge will become the first luxury EV to be made in India. However, the expected pricing of the new XC40 Recharge will be in the range of Rs 50-60 lakh, thus bringing it closer to the latest all-electric global offering from Kia, the EV6.

The new XC40 Recharge is based on the petrol-powered Volvo XC40. However, it gets some prominent tweaks on the exterior in comparison to the former. The changes include a closed front grille, a different alloy wheel design and a front trunk. Replacing the 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine of the regular XC40 is an all-electric powertrain. It is a combination of a 402 bhp/660 Nm electric motor and a 78 kWh lithium-ion battery pack.

The powerful electric motor of the XC40 Recharge can make the SUV reach an electronically-limited top speed of 180 kmph. At the same time, it can cover 0-100 kmph time of 5.9 seconds. The 78 kWh battery pack claims a maximum driving range of 418 km (under WLTP test conditions). With 150 kW power output, this battery pack of XC40 Recharge can get charged from 0-80 per cent in 40 minutes. Using this power output, it can also obtain a range of 80-100 km in 10 minutes of charging. Using the regular 11kW AC fast charging option, the battery takes 8-10 hours to get fully charged.

The prices and bookings of the new XC40 Recharge will be announced in July 2022. However, the official deliveries of the all-electric SUV will begin sometime during the festive season in October 2022. Apart from the Kia E6 and the upcoming Hyundai Ioniq 5, the XC40 Recharge will also be priced against the BMW i4 all-electric sedan.

As promised by Ola Electric, the company has rolled out the “Move OS 2.0” software update for the S1 Pro. The Ola S1 Pro finally gets all those missing fancy features previewed at the time of the launch, but not included in the production-spec version of the scooter. In addition to this, a couple of software bugs have also got resolved under this update. Here are all those new updates which are part of the Move OS 2.0 software upgrade.

“Eco” riding mode

Until now, the Ola S1 Pro was available only with three riding modes – normal, sports and hyper – in the order of the performance output, they deliver. Ola Electric has now added another riding mode named ‘eco’, which sits below the normal riding mode. With this riding mode, the scooter can now achieve a maximum riding range of upto 170 km. Ola also claims that around 100 S1 Pro owners have achieved 200 km of range with this software update. 

Cruise control

While the Ola S1 Pro is not India’s first e-scooter to get cruise control as a comfort feature, it now finally makes its way into the scooter as a standard feature. The cruise control in the Ola S1 Pro can be engaged at speeds between 20 km/h to 80 km/h. However, there’s a catch – the cruise control is not operational in the eco mode, but only in normal, sports and hyper modes.

Digital locking and unlocking

The customers of Ola S1 Pro can now lock and unlock the scooter through the new Ola Electric Companion smartphone app. Apart from this new feature, customers have got access to a few new features like opening the under-seat boot compartment and monitoring the charge status, odometer reading and remaining range as per the different riding modes on this new app.

Navigation

The Ola S1 Pro owners can finally operate the wireless navigation feature on the instrument screen on the scooter. The owner can now insert the location and refer to the live route map through the touchscreen interface.

Bluetooth-operated music system

From the beginning, the Ola S1 Pro comes equipped with speakers on board. Under this new update, the S1 Pro owners can listen to the music through these speakers while on the go. The customers can connect their smartphones with the scooter and stream music through platforms like Spotify and JioSaavn.

Apart from rolling out these additional features and updates, Ola Electric teased a few images of its upcoming pure-electric cars. The company has stated that it will unveil more details on these cars on 15th August 2022.

Bgauss has been one of the recent entrants in the world of electric two wheelers. The company has already been selling B8 and A2 electric two wheelers and recently launched the D15 model for India. Bookings are already open and customers can opt from two versions. These are the BG D15 Pro and the BG D15i.

The Bgauss BG D15 is more like an electric step-thru. It is available in five colour options and the full metal body aids durability in the long run. The large 16-inch alloy wheels make the EV looks large enough. You can book the D15 via their official website for just Rs 499. The normal D15i carries and ex-showroom price of Rs 99,999 while the D15 Pro has an ex-showroom price of Rs 1,14,999.

Also read: Simple One e-scooter Test Rides Will Start Soon

Both the e-scooters gets an electric motor with peak torque of 110 Nm and 3 modes of Eco, Sports and Reverse. Max speed is limited to 60 km/h. Acceleration from 0 to 40 km/h stands at 7 seconds. The certified range Bgauss BG D15 models stands at 115 km. The company claims a full charging time of 5 hrs 30 mins. The Pro, being expensive has additional features. Moreover, it includes Bluetooth connectivity and smart features including geo fencing, find my vehicle buzzer, vehicle theft alarm et al.

If you are interested in this new e-bike, you can visit their local store – details are on their website.

A few days back we updated you on the ‘new’ delivery timeline for the much awaited Simple One e-scooter. It was almost an year back when the company had thrown open the bookings for its first offering. For those interested in this scooter, good news now comes in the form of confirmed test drive schedules. Simple One has stated that they will kick start the rides from 20th July onwards. These rides will be conducted in as many as 12 cities. Do have a look at the image below to see if your city falls in this plan or not.

In parallel, the company is also gearing up to launch the Simple One electric scooter. It should be noted that bookings started on 15th August last year and thousands of citizens (including me) have been waiting patiently to get our hands on the vehicle. At the same time, a lot of people have waited to first experience the vehicle before going ahead with the process. It comes as no surprise that the test rides are kicking off from the IT capital of India. We are assuming a registration process will start on their website – so do keep an eye out for that.

Simple One Scooter

Coming back to the scooter, for its claimed driving range, the Simple One caused quite a stir in the market. The e-scooter comes with a battery capacity of 4.8kWh and an 8.5kW motor. This provides 72 Nm of peak torque resulting in a stated driving range of 236 kilometres. The company introduced an extra 1.6kWh battery earlier this year, bringing the total capacity to 6.4kWh and claiming a range of over 300km in optimum conditions. The extra battery pack costs Rs 35,000 and will be installed in the boot of the scooter eating up a significant amount of boot space.

The Simple One electric scooter is claimed to sprint from 0-40 kmph in just 2.85 seconds. In contrast, the top speed is 105 kmph. Different driving modes will be available on the Simple One e-scooter, affecting its performance and acceleration. The Simple One electric scooter costs Rs 1.09 lakh (ex-showroom) for the standard and Rs 1.44 lakh (ex-showroom) for the longer battery version.

Tata Motors launched an updated version of its e-SUV last month. Called the Nexon EV Max, this 2022 model carries a lot of changes and additions to make it a better package for prospective customers. The Nexon EV remains one of the best electric SUVs you can buy under Rs 25 lakh and here are 6 things you need to know about the new model

Improved Range

One of the biggest roadblocks in purchasing an electric car today is the limited driving range. Range anxiety remains a concern and Tata has addressed this issue to an extent. The updated Nexon EV Max comes with a claimed driving range (on a full charge) of 437km. This is as much as 125km higher than the previous version. This means in real world driving situations, the EV Max will still cover a minimum of 300km. Most owners thus will have to charge the SUV every 5-7 days.
Do note that the improved range is primarily due to the bigger battery pack.

Better performance

The older Tata Nexon EV had an output of 129 bhp of power and 245 Nm of torque. The new Max variant sees a small improvement, with max power being 143 bhp and max torque being 250. This hike helps to negate the extra weight of the bigger battery pack. Top speed has also been increased to 140 km/h – still electronically limited like the previous model.

Re-gen modes

Tata Motors had added regen modes in the 2022 Nexon EV Max. Regen ensures that when you lift off the accelerator pedal, the kinetic energy is utilised to power back the batteries. For the updated e-SUV, users can pick from three levels of regen with the hardest level giving extra braking, thereby enabling drivers to use one pedal drive. This means by lifting off the right pedal, users can control the reduction of speed and do not have to rely on the brake pedal.

More features

Tata Motors has worked hard to catch up with competition when it comes to the feature list. The updated model for instance gets a host of add-ons including an electronic park brake and air purifier. Front seats get ventilation, in comes wireless charging and the gear lever has been replaced by a rotary knob. This also frees up space between the seats. Cruise control, hill hold, ESP and smart watch integration are a carry over from the previous version.

Related Read : Kia EV6 vs Hyundai IONIQ 5 Comparsion

Its heavier and lower

The bigger battery pack has added 70kgs to the overall weight of the car. Plus, about 30kg of additional load comes from new added features. Due to this extra weight, Tata has tweaked the suspension as well. At the same time, to accommodate the biggest battery pack, ground clearance has gone down by 10mm.

Price hike

And finally the numbers! The 2022 Nexon EV Max sees a big hike in pricing and most of this is due to the bigger battery pack. As compared to the outgoing version, prices have gone up by over Rs 2 lakh. The Nexon EV Max is available in two versions of XZ+ and XZ+ Lux with prices starting at Rs 17.74 lakh.

Prices: (ex-showroom)
Nexon EV Max XZ+ 3.3 kW charger – 17.74 lakh
Nexon EV Max XZ+ 7.2 kW charger – 18.24 lakh
Nexon EV Max XZ+ Lux 3.3 kW charger – 18.74 lakh
Nexon EV Max XZ+ Lux 7.2 kW charger – 19.24 lakh