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PluginIndia Electric Vehicles

Mahindra e2o Electric Car : Battery Upgrades & Test Drive

3/7/2020

38 Comments

 
By Atul Gopal
You guys must have read bout our previous writeup where Kamlesh and I visited a very interesting EV workshop in the Cinchwad area of Pune - Northway Motorsport who specialises in converting ICE Vehicles to Electric vehicles and also have battery upgrades for Mahindra e2o Electric Car.
In this blog, i share my thoughts on the test drive in hilly terrain on an upgraded 5+ year old e2o. We also visit and showed the upgrade to e
x Mahindra Reva Battery Head, Mr Abhay Patwardhan, who's company now is making LFP batteries for electric scooters and also document his recommendations.
Video : Interview with Mr Hemank from ​Northway Motorsport 

Today i cycled down to the Bhosari factory of Hemank Auto Parts. The intention was to test the upgraded e2o belonging to an owner in Pune who had graciously allowed us to test the upgrade.
The vehicle had been fully charged - and was still plugged in. The funny thing about an overnight full charge for an E2O is that it is never 100%. The Mahindra charger is programmed to switch off at 6 hours. The Mahindra math is that it takes 4 hours for cells to get fully charged. An extra 2 hours is for cell balancing - as the cell siblings decide how to share the charge booty that the mother socket has delivered to the hungry kids in the last 4 hours.

The onboard computing and accessories keep on draining juice from the battery, even in switched off mode. But my guess is that drain is more like 3% a day. If you were to unplug the car exactly after 6 hours, it shows a SoC of 100%. There is an e2o user whose plug point is fitted with a timer. The timer starts the charging at 0300 hrs, so that when our friend leaves for work at 0900 hrs, the SoC is a healthy 100%! Coming back to the regular e20 charging, we see that in the space of just 4 hours there is a 3% drop in SoC. My guess is that the cell balancing is not complete - and continues even after the automatic plug-out is done at the 6 hour mark. A solution could be to continue to trickle charge the car till the power is switched off. Hemank mentioned me that if you trickle charge a car for 30 hours at a stretch, all the cells will be balanced. Worth trying on the next vacation, provision to Mahindra charging algorithm being short circuited in some way.

Drove down to Baner to pick up Kamlesh. The original idea had been to do a full 150 km circuit. I had planned the route as new Katraj tunnel - Mariyayi ghat - Saswad - Chinchwad. But we got a call from Hemank as we were approaching the Katraj ghat. He was worried about a possible calibration issue. So we decided to do an abridged ride of going up the new Katraj tunnel and coming down the old one. Uphill climbs are real tests of batteries. The ghat is a 9 km one. We started the ghat climb with a SoC of 72%. It was 62% at the top of the ghat. A drain of about 1% per km - which was a wee bit more than what I had expected. With a battery pack of 19 kWH, which is double of the existing 10 kWh, a 1% SoC drain in the new pack is equivalent to a 2% SoC drain in the old pack.

Downhills are where the EV owner gets some real pleasure and peace of mind. We did the 6 km downhill ghat at a leisurely 40 kmph, with nary a foot on the brake. The regen taking care of our braking. At the Katraj signal the SoC had crept up 4% - from 62 to 66%. Again would be a good idea to check the increase in Soc with a normal e2o. Logically the conversion of potential energy to electrical energy should be the same in both cars, if you ignore the extra 70 kg battery weight in the boot. So the normal E2O should be making 8%. Will wait for someone to validate this.
Picture
All set for our test drive
Picture
Started at 97% SOC at 0.0 km. Ignore the DTE. That is not calibrated.
We reached my friend Abhay Patwardhan's workshop, which is close to market yard. Distance travelled from the ghat bottom would have been about 6 km, with a SoC drain of just 1%. Downhills help even in cities! Abhay used to head Electronics R&D at Mahindra Reva, and we thought it would be a good idea for him to have a dekko at the E2O with boosters. He liked the packaging. His suggestion was to modify the underseat space to fit the booster pack. This will give a more evenly loaded car. Come to think of it, I did feel the steering was a wee bit lighter than what I am used to. My initial thinking was that it was because of the power steering, which I am not used to. But it could have also been because the vehicle's loading on the front wheels comes down as there is a load at the rear - and hence a reduction in steering effort. As a corollary you also get more boot space - which the current battery pack is occupying. And a safer central battery position.

The other issue that Abhay thought could create problems is in the inter-pack balancing. Now no battery pack can work without putting cells in series. Each of the individual cells is rated at 3V.
​So in order to get the 48 V that drives the 19kW e2o Kirloskar motor, you will need to put 16 cells in series: 16 x 3 V = 48 V. However in the Booster car, you have now got 32 cells, with a 16 cell pack in parallel to another 16 cell pack. There is a possibility that juice from the new pack, along with driving the motor, is also juicing up the old 16 cell pack, as the vehicle is being driven.
​This may result 1 + 1 being less than 2.
Picture
The 9kWh battery pack at the back in addition to 10 kWh original pack
Picture
Driving in hills near Katraj area of Pune city
In other words, the range will not be a sum of the ranges of what the 2 indivividual packs would have delivered, if they had been used one after the other. Maybe that is an arrangement that Hemank and company could try in their next iteration. Make the new 9 kWh pack, the mother battery pack and use that as the primary pack. Use the older pack as a reserve pack, which kicks in after the mother pack has run out of juice. The switch over can be done either by manual switches or automatically. Come to think of it Hero Motors has a scooter, which works on this principle using a manual switch for change of battery.

A validation of the 1 + 1 < 2 came at the end of our ride. We had unfortunately not been able to drain the vehicle to 0 SoC. But we had got down to 48%, which is half of the 97% that we had started with. The Trip A odometer showed a reading of  80 km. Extrapolating, we would have got 160 km for a full 100% SoC. The same car was reporting a range of about 80 km before fitting the booster pack. So the booster pack had not ended up making the range 100 + 80 km, but had merely doubled it from the existing 80 to 160 km. Disclaimer from Hemank is that he has got the car to go 200+ km with 2 bar cautious driving. But even the non boosted e2os have delivered 150 km, using frugal methods of driving. Additional information about our test drive: we drove at speeds of mostly around 40 to 60 kmph, in hilly roads, without the AC being switched on a single time. The car had power steering, which does drink up some more juice compared to the manual steering siblings.
Picture
We spoke to ex Mahindra Reva Battery Head, Mr Abhay Patwardhan to get his take on upgrade
Picture
Final Reading. Around 80 km with 50% consumed.

Final Words
It's a great retrofitting job. We need tinkerers like Hemank to give our cars the second life that our babies truly deserve. With so little maintenance, these kids cannot be allowed to die as young 10 year olds. I am pretty sure that these cars can live on to a middle age in car-years of about 25 or so. If that happens, it will be great for the owners, great for the environment, maybe not so great for the car companies. Which is probably the reason Mahindra dealerships have not been actively promoting replacement batteries.

So here is what I would recommend. Keep on running your e20 till you get a range that can deliver on the daily A to B journeys with a comfortable buffer. The day range anxiety starts creeping in - meet up with Hemank. Ask him to accept your old batteries as donor cells for our other e2o siblings. And get a new 9 kWH pack fitted under your seat. You will come out with a lighter, safer car.

Our small e2o community will continue to dream of their little babes routinely doing 200 km rides, but as Kamlesh put it appropriately - the E2o ain't a highway car. Let's stick to cities. 100 km is good for most of us!

How to get the upgrade on your e2o?
Contact Northway Motorsport or 
Fill the form and their team will contact you.
38 Comments
Jayesh
3/7/2020 10:27:50 am

I have 2014 e2o. Would love to replace old battery

Reply
Raphae Halim
3/7/2020 03:33:15 pm

Thanks for the insightful article! It presents a ray of hope to all of us whose well beloved EVs are experiencing cell degradation.

Reply
Zarryl lobo link
3/7/2020 08:41:57 pm

Wonderful and beautiful written article
Thanks you for a wonderfully insight.

Reply
Kushal Rajbhandari link
4/7/2020 09:45:49 am

I have a 2016 120km e2o. Would love to get this done on my vehicle in Nepal as well.

Reply
Bharath rM
4/7/2020 10:27:22 am

This is a great news. Thanks to pluginindia team. Kindly share more info how to approach them.

Reply
PluginIndia
6/7/2020 10:31:46 am

You could fill the form given at end of the article and their will get back to you.

Reply
Bharath Ram
4/4/2021 10:16:23 pm

I am from Hyderabad. Would Northway can help us in this .

Mitsubishi Wreckers Auckland link
28/10/2020 06:16:14 pm

Wonderful information about Mahindra e2o electric car battery upgrades test drive, thanks a lot for sharing kind of content with us. Your blog gives the best and the most interesting information. I wonder if we can gather such practical information about it, a great post definitely to come across.Do visit this Belairmitsi.co.nz For vital information that can be used again by anyone.

Reply
Rajendra Vasantrao Kenjalkar
16/3/2021 02:24:37 pm

I have 4.5 year old E2O. The battery strength has gone down and Mahindra people could not help me. As of now it charges to 97 Km on full charge and car stops moving at 35 DTE.
Am keen to upgrade/replace the battery and look forward to meeting Hemank. Can anyone help me with his contact details?

Reply
Raphae Halim
16/3/2021 07:15:47 pm

If you are in Pune you can go over to Northway MS and talk to them. Else here is the contact information from the website: https://www.northwayms.com/copy-of-contact-us

Reply
Rajesh
26/9/2021 05:37:07 pm

I'm in Bangalore, where to replace battery

DAYANANDA
5/4/2021 01:04:07 pm

to, Rajendra V kenjalkar
i am also facing same problem sir, i had filled up the form for complete replacement but no response from "plug in india people". the phone number in website is not working

Reply
Raphae Halim
6/4/2021 02:55:34 pm

Hi Dayananda, PluginIndia does not do the battery upgrade or replacement. You will have to let NorthWay Motor Sport get back to you. Last we heard, they were collecting a database of interested people and were planning a country wide drive for battery upgrade city by city. Right now they are a small operation based out of Pune. We know quite a few people who have these packs put in their cars but they physically took their cars over to NorthWayMS in Pune. Our best guess is that they do not have enough numbers to come to your city or they are not ready with the packs. Have you tried dropping them an e-Mail on the address given on their website? Regards!

DAYANANDA
4/4/2021 10:09:35 pm

i saw this video regarding replacement of e2o battery. i had filled up the form for enquiring regarding replacement of battery for my e2o car but still no response. i request you to to call back.
thanking you

Reply
Abhishek
20/12/2021 08:45:39 pm

Hi Dayananda,
Did you get any place in bangalore where batteries can be replaced or upgraded ?

Reply
muralidhar k
20/7/2021 05:53:00 pm

2014 e2o battery dead

Reply
Kushal
20/7/2021 05:54:42 pm

Can you explain a bit more about battery being dead? Does it not work at all? Any specific issue that caused it?

Reply
Nimish Avinash Nerurkar
22/7/2021 01:38:12 pm

Need to discuss and meet possibly along with a request of your direct contact info

Reply
Balasaheb D. Rajguru
7/11/2021 07:01:14 am

E20 Mahendra electric car having charging problem, it stops suddenly
,

Reply
Bal Rajguru
17/11/2021 08:19:13 am

E20 CAR START CHARGING AND SUDDENELY STOP CHARGING

Reply
AK Bhandari
1/12/2021 05:40:46 pm

My car E2o has done 65000 kms. Now with full charge it runs 60/65 kms. Please suggest solution

Reply
Suman kumar
12/1/2022 10:19:33 pm

I need new battery pack for my mahindra e2o plus. Please provide.

Reply
A sundareswarsRao
15/2/2022 09:17:05 pm

Ihave mahindra e20plus car model 2017 know get 100kilometres for Long drive purpose updates battery 200kilometres total 350kilometres it's possible.how cost about

Reply
AS Rao
12/8/2022 09:02:11 am

I need long drive purpose tallest 350 kilometres

Reply
Prabhu
18/2/2022 02:06:56 pm

Have a e20 2015 Model. We are in Bangalore. Would like to know how you can help us with repair/replacement of Battery

Reply
Ramith
18/3/2022 01:54:32 pm

Do you deliver to Sri Lanka?

Reply
Ashok
10/4/2022 12:38:26 pm

My e2o car yesterday went dead when it was showing 24 kms balance.
Later tried to recharge but the battery not getting charged.
Mahindra service stations and company have failed to respond or answer people on replacement or upgradation. Otherwise, the car is a junk and we have to look for a Kabadiwala for its disposal.
The car has no resale value.

Reply
Ishwar singh
24/4/2022 10:37:00 pm

Sir please contact me on 9999063008

Reply
Ram K Sharma
5/5/2022 06:53:00 am

My e2o car last week went dead.

Later tried to recharge but the battery not getting charged.
Mahindra service stations and company have failed to respond or answer people on replacement or upgradation.

Please advice about repairs to the charger. What repairs are required? What is the timeand money involved?

Please contact me at 9860306485 if required.

Reply
SURYANARAYANA RAO K
17/5/2022 05:08:26 pm

hi
Interested in baterry upgarde for 2015 Model e2o 2Door in Bangalore.

Please contact 8722879672

Reply
Ravi
18/5/2022 07:44:23 pm

my e20 car runs 40km on full charge, can you suggest to battery upgrade

Reply
Jojo James
29/5/2022 12:00:49 pm

7899517966

Reply
Jaison link
10/10/2022 10:12:35 pm

Hi Jojo. Do you do battery replacement for e2o?

Abhishek
18/5/2022 10:38:02 pm

Is there any garage who works on EV in Bangalore ?

Reply
Jojo
29/5/2022 12:00:05 pm

7899517966
Hariprasad

Reply
kiswa link
5/7/2022 10:17:43 am

nice info bro thanks

Reply
K.srinivas
7/7/2022 07:31:39 am

I want to convert my petrol car to ev my car is TATA teager

Reply
Pandit
9/11/2022 01:53:40 pm

Need battery replacement for e2o 2014

Reply

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