Mahindra e2o Plus First Drive Review: Electri-city car

Enough spec talk, it was time to see what it felt like behind the wheel of the e2o Plus. The system to get things going is unique in the e2o Plus — you need to point your key to the push-start button and wait till the car recognises the key and the light changes from orange to green. Once that happens, you are good to go. The motor does feel a little sedate, although engaging boost mode does liven things up a little. Boost mode give the car an extra bit of kick so you can pull off those quick overtaking manoeuvres, at the cost of a 10-15 per cent increase in consumption according to Mahindra Electric’s team, and the claimed 0-60 does take boost mode into account.

The handling isn’t much of an issue because you aren’t really cornering at high speeds. The steering feels light enough for city driving, though. Body-roll is perceptible, but not overly so. I was quite impressed by the turning radius, though: I could take really tight U-turns, a boon for a city driving car. The ride is decent, and the 170 mm of ground clearance is adequate, unless you come across the kind of post-rain craters that are found in Pune, in which case both are likely to be found a little wanting.

At this point, I’d typically write about fuel efficiency, but that is redundant here and, as mentioned earlier, the claimed range is 140 kilometres, something that we’ll only be able to corroborate when we get the car for a road test. Price-wise, the base P4 costs Rs 7.04 lakh, going up to Rs 9.77 lakh for the top-spec P8 (both ex-showroom, Pune).

The e2o Plus is the only electric five-door available (at least until the Tesla Model 3 starts arriving). So if you are on the lookout for a city car that fits four and don’t want the hassle of fuel stations, then the e2o Plus is definitely worthy of your consideration.

NEED TO KNOW

MAHINDRA e2o PLUS P8

PRICE: Rs 9.77 lakh (ex-showroom, Pune)

POWERTRAIN: AC-induction, three-phase, 600-A controller
BATTERY PACK: 210 Ah, Lithium-ion, 69-cell, 16-kWh
MAX POWER: 41 PS at 3,500 rpm
MAX TORQUE: 91 Nm at 2,000 rpm
TRANSMISSION: Direct, rear-wheel-drive
RANGE: 140 km (claimed)
WEIGHT: 990 kg

Tags: 2016, battery, car, details, door, Drive, e2o, electric, First, four, india, Mahindra, plus, range, Review, specs, test