Indian army loves Maruti Suzuki Gypsy and has been one of the biggest buyers of the car in the Indian market. Even after the discontinuation of the Gypsy, Maruti Suzuki continued making the lightweight petrol 4X4 Gypsy exclusively for the Indian Armed forces. Recently, the Indian army retrofitted 10 Gypsy SUVs with electric powertrains. One of them was recently spotted stuck in a traffic jam on the road.
The electric Gypsy on the side of the road was spotted by a passerby. We are not sure about the exact location of this spotting but it happened somewhere around in the national capital.
The Gypsy still get the registration plates marking it as an official Indian Armed Force vehicle, but the registration plate itself is of green colour just like any other EV in India. Apart from the registration plate, there are other markings on the car like thunderbolts drawn in green indicating that it is the electric Gypsy.
The electric Gypsy definitely looks like a regular one apart from the graphics on the road and the green registration. It also gets the motifs of the Indian Army on the bonnet.
Made by Tadpole Projects
The converted electric Gypsy has been made by Tadpole Projects. The car was showcased at the Army Commanders Conference in New Delhi back in April. The project was undertaken by Indian Army Cell, IIT-Delhi and Tadpole Projects.
Tadpole Projects is incubated by IIT-Delhi and does EV retrofitting. The main objective of the conversion is to reduce the operating cost. The converted Gypsy EVs costs only Rs 120 to travel 120 km, which is a major drop from Rs 1,200 that it consumed on petrol. It is a significant drop.
The new retro-fitted electric Gypsys also produce zero-emission whereas, the petrol variants emitted 3.3g of carbon per km. The drive experience and operation is noise-free while the electric powertrain now produces more torque than the petrol one.
The Gypsy is fitted with a 21.7 kW battery pack of 72V voltage. It gets a range of 120 km and takes 9 hours to charge completely using a 15 Amp charger. It can reach a top-speed of 70 km/h. The cost of retrofitting the electric powertrain to Gypsy is Rs 5,78,200 per car. There is also a warranty of two-year on the motor and a five-year of three-year warranty on the battery.
The vehicle is converted after removing the engine, fuel tank, exhaust and related assemblies. It is then fitted with PMS Motor or Permanent Magnetic Synchronous with Lithium-Iron Phosphate batteries. The Army has converted about 10 units of the Gypsy but has not revealed any plans to retrofit more cars in the future at the moment.
Keyword: Indian army's electric Maruti Suzuki Gypsy 4X4 SUV spotted on the road [Video]