Log9 Materials and Northway Motorsport to enable ICE to EV retrofitment of small 4W commercial vehicles

Bengaluru-headquartered battery technology startup Log9 Materials has entered into a partnership with Pune-based Northway Motorsport to utilize the latter’s expertise to retrofit used and brand-new ICE-based Small Commercial Vehicles (SCV) into EVs alongside the integration of Log9’s RapidX batteries. As a part of this collaboration, Log9 and Northway Motorsport will enable retrofitment (ICE vehicle to EV conversion) service on a request basis for the existing vehicles on the road. Northway Motorsport will also tie-up with various retrofitment workshops around the country, starting with metro cities like Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Mumbai, and then other parts of the country, as and when deemed necessary.

The company release further added that Log9 and Northway Motorsport are currently working to introduce a new 4W product InstaCharged by Log9 batteries that would be the fastest-charging 4-wheeler commercial retrofitted vehicle in India. The jointly-developed upcoming e-4W SCV platform by Log9 and Northway can be fully charged from 0 to 100% within 45 minutes; it also comes with an industry-leading warranty of 8 years or unlimited km, and is claimed to be the country’s first 4W commercial EV consisting a 4-speed manual gearbox. The vehicle shall be able to deliver peak performance in extreme temperatures ranging from -45 degrees to +60 degrees Celsius. 

Speaking on the collaboration, Mr. Kartik Hajela, Co-Founder & COO, Log9 Materials said, “As of today, there are very limited options for a 4-wheeler commercial EVs in the Indian market, and additionally, existing 4W commercial EVs are suffering due to charging downtime and low battery life. While solving these issues, we at Log9 want in parallel hope to speed up the process of getting more and more CVs on the road in order to build use-cases around the success of converting the popular ICE commercial vehicles to electric-powered ones while using the InstaCharge technology of Log9; and to this end, we are glad to partner with Northway Motorsport. With this partnership, we are attempting to deliver best-in-class efficiency and productivity to provide impetus to seamless last-mile deliveries with e-4W commercial EVs.”

Mr. Hemank Dhabade, Founder of Northway Motorsports said, “At Northway Motorsport, we focus on designing complete end-to-end solutions, specific to the applications from the ground-up. It is with this grounds-up philosophy and approach that we can achieve unique, compact and high-performance made-in-India products. Our partnership with Log9 is along the same lines, wherein we will be not just producing new retrofitted commercial vehicles and converting old ones to electric with fast-charging capabilities, but also launching a first-of-its-kind e-4W retrofitted SCV that would result in up to 70% monthly operational savings while retaining unchanged payload capacity.”

Northway Motorsport is the electric vehicle division of Hemank Auto Parts Pvt. Ltd., which has developed its in-house drivetrain solutions for EVs.

Also Read: Retrofitting ICE vehicles to EVs with Hemank Dabhade