Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad-incubated startup Pure EV has launched its fifth electric electric scooter model christened ETrance+ at Rs 56,999 (ex-showroom), which comes with 1.25 KWH portable battery that gives a claimed range of 65km per charge.

The company says it has an in-house battery manufacturing facility and a research setup based out of IIT Hyderabad campus where its R&D team works on core areas of battery thermal management system for development of long-range and high-performance lithium batteries.

Commenting on the launch, Rohit Vadera, CEO, Pure EV said, “In this Covid-19 pandemic scenario, thrust on personal mobility has increased significantly and people are looking for electric scooters at affordable prices. ETrance+ comes with a robust chassis design, body parts built for Indian road conditions and advanced features like regenerative braking, eABS and a SOC indicator shows the percentage of battery capacity remaining. We are confident that this model will meet the requirements of the majority of customers looking to buy EVs for their daily short commutes.”

The EV startup has already launched four products in the market: EPluto 7G, Epluto, Etrance and Etron+. The company says it is on course to significantly expand its manufacturing base to a larger facility with an annual capacity of 200,000 EVs and battery manufacturing capacity of 5GWh in comparison with the existing capacities of 20,000 EVs and 0.5 GWh. This the company says will be achieved at a new 2 lakh sqft plant, which the company intends to commission during 2021 to meet the anticipated growth in the Indian EV and lithium battery market.

Highlighting the technological advancements of Pure EV manufacturing unit, Dr Nishanth Dongari, founder, Pure EV, and Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, IIT-Hyderabad said, “The launch of ETrance+ is another important milestone for the company and demonstrates our ability on cost innovation even while meeting all the key expectations of the customers. Such innovations are becoming feasible even under the pandemic due to our in-house battery technology and the R&D in improving the efficiency of power train. We intend to emerge as one of the pioneers in India in shifting the customers’ preference towards new generations lithium battery powered electric scooters. We are also in the process of getting the high-speed variant of this model certified by December 2020, which will be launched at an attractive price point of ex-showroom price of Rs. 69,999 with 90km on-road range and a top speed of 55kph.”

Also read: Pure EV supplies lithium batteries to healthcare companies to fight Covid-19 in India