Indian/German automotive startup Nunam and Audi have joined efforts to produce a handful of particularly affordable zero-emission transports. They took regular three-wheeled rickshaws and put electric motors inside them powered by e-tron battery packs.
The project pursues two goals: to design a cheap eco-friendly means of transportation and to find use for used EV batteries. Audi points out that there are still not enough used traction batteries around to justify building large recycling plants. Furthermore, batteries that electric cars can no longer use due to voltage degradation can still store up to a half of their original capacity and can be used in other, less demanding vehicles.
The rickshaws were upgraded with the battery packs removed from Audi e-tron pre-production test vehicles. The packs were split into smaller cell blocks suitable for lightweight tuk-tuks. The companies avoided mentioning any dynamic performance numbers.
Nunam has three finished rickshaws at its disposal now, which it plans to hand over to non-commercial organizations and market delivery women. In addition to their electric powertrains, the tuk-tuks benefit from LED lighting all around and LCD dashboard displays.