Etrio launches India's first retrofitted electric light commercial vehicle

Electric vehicle start-up Etrio on Tuesday said it has launched the country's first certified retrofitted electric light commercial vehicle (eLCV).

The introduction of the eLCV is the company's first-of-its-kind initiative to transform and electrify intra-city logistics, Etrio said in a statement.

The startup's Hyderabad-based manufacturing facility can churn out 5,000 such vehicles per annum, it added.

"We are proud to launch Etrio's eLCV which through our scientific retrofitment process revives the earning of the driver owner by saving almost 60 per cent of the operational expenses and makes diesel guzzling LCV into a green productive vehicle," Etrio Co-founder and CEO Deepak MV said.

This will not only re-shape the e-commerce logistics space but also have a deeper impact on the EV ecosystem, he added.

"We have already received interest of over 1200 eLCV as we speak," MV noted.

Light commercial vehicles (LCV) like Tata Ace could be retrofitted with electric components.

Etrio fits the eLCV with a lithium-ion battery which lends the vehicle a certified range of 120 km.

The retrofitted e-LCV pricing starts at ₹7.75 lakh (on road- Delhi) and can compete in the marketplace with a diesel counterpart on the total cost of ownership, a major milestone for an EV across segments, the company said.