This electric rickshaw, designed by a German-Indian start-up with Audi, is equipped with batteries already used in e-tron SUVs.
Manufacturers are teeming with ideas for giving electric vehicle batteries a second life. If on the side of Renault we can make a mobile generator, Audi has imagined with the start-up Nunam an electric rickshaw. The rickshaw, also called tuk-tuk, is a very popular bicycle taxi in Asia.
It is therefore equipped with an electric motor. It was imagined by Nunam, financed by the environmental foundation of the ring builder. The non-profit start-up thus worked in collaboration with the Audi training teams at the Neckarsulm site (Germany).
Power for the electric motor comes from a battery that has already been used by an e-tron, Audi’s first electric SUV. More specifically, we are talking here about batteries that were on the fleet of test vehicles. Something to reassure those who thought that e-trons sold on the market already had a tired battery!
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Prodip Chatterjee, co-founder of Nunam, recalls that the batteries are of course designed to last the life of the car. But “Even after their initial use in a vehicle, they still retain a great deal of their power”. They are thus adapted to machines that require less power and less autonomy, such as this tuk-tuk.
Prodip Chatterjee also points out that, while there are already electric bicycle taxis in India, most of them have lead-acid batteries, “which have a relatively short lifespan and are often not recycled properly”. In addition, electricity for charging is often coal-fired. Numam has therefore imagined solar charging stations.
Three prototypes of this rickshaw with the Audi logo will be assembled and will hit the Indian roads in early 2023. They will be intended primarily for women who sell on the markets. The project thus aims to strengthen access to employment for them.
