Bengaluru-headquartered battery technology and deep-technology startup Log9 Materials has announced that it has entered into a long-term strategic partnership with Pune-based EV company Northway Motorsport to utilize the latter’s expertise to retrofit multiple used and brand-new ICE-based Small Commercial Vehicles (SCV) into EVs alongside the integration of Log9’s RapidX batteries for delivering performance.
“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,” a company statement said.
“Furthermore, Log9 and Northway Motorsport are currently working hand-in-hand to introduce soon to the market a new 4W product InstaCharged by Log9 batteries that is poised to become the fastest-charging 4-wheeler commercial retrofitted vehicle in India, in a bid to create a more scalable CV portfolio for the masses and bring economies of scale. 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 kms., and is claimed to be the country’s first 4W commercial EV consisting a 4-speed manual gearbox. Due to the integration of Log9’s InstaCharge technology, the vehicle shall be able to deliver peak performance in extreme temperatures ranging between -45 degrees to +60 degrees Celsius,” as per a company statement.
“Given that commercial vehicles are today a large source of pollution in our country, and are an imperative for goods transfer whether, for e-commerce, manufacturing, or logistics, Log9 and Northway jointly aim to address this concern by promoting the electrification of the commercial fleets across the nation. The collaboration also brings Northway Motorsport under the aegis of Responsible Delivery Movement – an initiative by Log9 aimed to accelerate e-mobility adoption for last-mile deliveries and bring down transportation and logistics-related emissions intensity in India by up to 33% by 2030,” it added.
Speaking on the collaboration, 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.”
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.”
