Pune based Northway Motors demonstrates 200 km/h top speed on EV converted Ignis indicated by car’s original speedo
Ignis from Maruti Suzuki has been one of the cute little vehicles on sale in India. This car is the entry portal into their premium Nexa experience. Ignis is not exactly shattering sales charts and is currently maintaining sub 3K units. So, nothing interesting, right? But what if we told you someone converted it to run on electricity and made it go 200 kmph? Not so boring now, is it?
Maruti Ignis Electric Modified
India’s four-wheel juggernaut, Maruti Suzuki is known for its small and affordable hatchbacks that are easy on the wallet. While there are many Maruti cars following this ethos sold through Arena dealerships, there is only one for Nexa dealerships, the Ignis. With steady sub 3K sales, Ignis is currently India’s 11th best-selling hatchback.
But for Maruti Suzuki, sub 3K sales puts it at the bottom parts of the charts and is 13th best-selling Maruti car. For Pune-based Northway Motors, however, Maruti Ignis was a good donor car to retrofit one of their EV conversion kits. The company specializes in Retrofit EV conversion kits for Tata Ace, EV products and sales, custom OEM products and energy storage solutions.
We’re not sure whether Northway Motors used the same EV conversion kit designed and developed for Tata Ace (Rs. 2.75 lakh excluding vehicle) or a custom solution. Regardless, the result is quite fascinating. As seen in the video, we can see a Maruti Suzuki Ignis converted to run on electric power donning green number plates.
This EV conversion on Ignis is for R&D only and is tested in a controlled environment on a dynamometer and not on public roads. The conversion is done on a top-spec Ignis Alpha and the car gets green-painted alloy wheels to show its green credentials. Or to match the green registration plates.
Ignis 200 kmph!
As seen in the video, Northway Motors’ Maruti Ignis electric modified version is powered by a battery and a motor. EVs sold by almost every single OEM are equipped with a single-speed gearbox. Northway Motors, however, seems to have kept Ignis’ 5-speed gearbox for torque optimisation.
The dyno run of this EV-converted Ignis shows good performance across all five pre-determined gear ratios. The headline figure of 200 km/h top speed is shown on the car’s original speedometer. Even if there is a variance, this is still impressive as it reveals the benefits of running a conventional gearbox with EVs as they tend to have a ratio close to 1 in their top gears or even an overdrive ratio. For OEMs, incorporating a conventional gearbox is more expensive, complicated and heavy. But for EV conversions, this could prove to be a good direction.
