After what seemed like eternity since the car’s first public appearance at the 2012 Auto Expo in New Delhi, Mahindra finally launched the eVerito electric sedan in June this year. But it appears the engineers at Mahindra aren't done with the testing schedules for the car yet!
Caught testing last week in the busy NH45 on the outskirts of Chennai, not far from the Mahindra Research Valley, this eVerito appeared to be on one of its range-testing runs. The car was caught clocking a steady speed of about 70 km/h and, as long as we followed it, chugging along in a sedate manner with minimal acceleration and braking. To our surprise, the driver even had the headlights turned off, all pointing towards eking out every last bit of juice from the battery pack.
Is Mahindra planning to shoehorn a bigger battery pack in the eVerito for more power and longer range? Or, is this just an endurance run to reaffirm how the car copes up with day-to-day running conditions? As much as we wish otherwise, we guess it's the latter!
Powered by a 72V 3-phase AC induction motor, eVerito’s spec sheet currently reads 41 horsepower, 91 Nm of torque, top speed of 86 km/h and a driving range of 110 km on a single charge. Regular charging on a 15A socket takes 8 hours and 45 minutes while a fast-charging system trims the time taken to go from 0 to 80% to just 1 hour and 45 minutes.
When the eVerito was launched, it was only the second electric car on sale in India after Mahindra’s own e2o. Though the Nashik-based car manufacturer added the Supro twins and the e2o Plus to its electric portfolio subsequently, high retail prices, lack of charging infrastructure, limited practicality and absence of safety features have proven to be real dampeners for Mahindra's four-strong electric fleet. In this scenario, we have got to applaud Mahindra for not giving up on its push to make electric cars more appealing to mainstream car-buyers.
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