Cal-On to roll out hybrid autos

The company will launch the autos in Hyderabad within three months

Cal-On Motors Limited, a city-based electric vehicles manufacturer, is gearing up to roll out what it claims the country‘s first compressed natural gas (CNG)-cum-battery-operated autorickshaws shortly.

“The designing part of the project is already in place and the CNG-electric hybrid autos will vroom on the roads in Andhra Pradesh within three months from now,” A Suresh Babu, chairman and managing director of Cal-On Motors, told Business Standard.

Prior to this launch will be the rollout of electric autorickshaws – both passenger and load carriers. “A prototype has already been designed and tested and we are on the verge of freezing the specifications. The new vehicle, which will be powered by a 1,000-watt motor, will have close to 400 kg payload capacity. It will be manufactured at our 300-unit-per-month capacity Cherlapally plant on the outskirts of Hyderabad and will be launched some time during this November,” he added.

Cal-On on Thursday launched Elan, an e-motorette targeted at farmers and vendors. Fitted with a 250-watt battery, Elan, which runs with a maximum speed of 25 kilometre-per-hour, is priced at Rs 29,000 on road.

The company expects to sell 1,000 units a month in Andhra Pradesh in the first year of launch.

Suresh Babu said the company had also acquired land near Vijayawada to set up its second manufacturing facility. “This will augment our total production capacity to 50,000 units a year,” he added.