Innovation has a life of its own. It takes great observation, curiosity and out of the box thinking to create something that can solve problems, big or small. Unlike phones, we can’t simply bring a product from another country, rebrand it and sell here in India, a country that has its own whims and quirkiness. Take riding for instance, triple riding is common in India. You would probably see an entire family of 5 travelling on just a two wheeler with more groceries and stuff piled upon them. Why, people, even ferry LPG cylinders, pipes, sacks and more, with curious onlookers in suspended disbelief. A two – wheeler then, becomes another member of the family.
Having the frame outside the vehicle
Normal two-wheelers are sturdy because of the strong and heavy steel frames that support it. Indians love all things strong and sturdy. But no Indian EV existed for us to draw a reference from. So it was all trial and error and finally we have a frame which takes inspiration from Steel Casting, Tubular frame, from single cradle to double cradle and trellis design, aluminium cast component to keep the batteries and the inverter safe and cool. The frame as undergone quite a many iterations because we had to balance strength with optimal weight ideal for an EV and not to forget the affordability for our Indian folks. What we currently have fits well within the definition of a battle tank yet light enough to keep the efficiency high.
As a scooter we can’t compromise on the space we have to fit our routine groceries and other daily essentials and neither could we compromise on strength. So we decided to keep our frame not inside but outside the vehicle to get maximum space inside. Something had to move out to make space inside, so we thought why not push the frame out and keep the other parts in. Because why not, the frame deserves some recognition as well and some space in a photo frame!
Challenges galore
This design did come with its own set of challenges. Most people couldn’t understand the logic behind having the frame outside. Numerous vendors refused to make it for us, before some agreed to work with us on this unique frame design, we had to bring suppliers from three genres to work together on creating a unique design. So obviously, the frame took the longest in our entire project but it was all worth it in the end.
The first sand cast based steel casting turned out to be good for the design but very poor for the overall weight, we then moved to a little sophisticated casting method of investment costing, and that did the trick, we got the strength we needed and the weight which is not less than one third of the original.
Heat in a an EV is lethal, that is when aluminium casts came to save us, not just the battery like the many EV manufacturer already do, we had to do a little more, an important component of an EV is the motor inverter, while the usual thought is to somehow tuck it in somewhere in the scooter, we wanted to give this critical guy some recognition, the aluminium cast housing the motor inverter not only acts like an enclosure, but also a giant heat sink to keep the controller electronics cool, additionally the cast also serves as a stress member to the tubular frame.
While the majority of the frame is built using a more traditional steel tube, the steel and the aluminium cast significantly reduced not just complexity of the frame development but also the design, all this while keeping the overall weight under check.