Mahindra e2oPlus: First Drive Review

As Indians, we’ve been all praise about the advancements in the world of electric cars abroad for a while now, while ruing the lack of a good enough battery operated car in the Indian market. The Reva was a great initiative but its low range made the car a scary proposition. Let’s admit it, no one wanted to get stuck with a car that can’t be refuelled even if you own a petrol bunk yourself. Then came the e2o. It looks promising but the two door configuration and lack of space in the second row has limited its appeal to quite an extent. The e2oPlus is what we were waiting for then.

With four proper doors and a claimed range of 140km, the e2oPlus is an electric car that can be termed as practical. I mean, four seats with ample space for all occupants, space to throw in a couple of bags, an infotainment system and the satisfaction of not polluting the environment while not having to spend on fossil fuels is quite the deal, isn’t it? So should you ditch plans of spending on that petrol-engined premium hatchback? Umm… may be yes. The e2o as I just mentioned, offers pretty much everything you need on your daily commute. Heck, you can even have the car cool itself by turning the air-conditioning on through the app on your smartphone, before you get to the car. 

More importantly, even if you live 30km away from your workplace, you could still drive to work and get back home with a decent amount of charge left. How cool is that! We spent some time behind the wheel of the e2oPlus, and in terms of driving it doesn’t feel very different from the average hatchback except for the eerie silence due to lack of an engine under the hood (which is where the spare wheel and jack sit by the way). The top end variant you see here gets a 30kW (roughly 41PS) electric motor and 91Nm of torque. Doesn’t sound too impressive in the world of 100PS hatchbacks?

Get latest updates on
the automobile community

Login Now

How does a sub-10 second 0-60kmph time (claimed timing is 9.5 seconds) sound then? The important bit here is that unlike your 100PS hatch, you don’t have to wait for the engine to get to revs where it produces peak power or shift through the gears at all. Electric motors offer all their might right from the word go which means a mere press of the throttle offers you all that power instantaneously, and forward progress is pretty rapid. More so is the case when you slot the drive selector in ‘B’ mode with the alphabet denoting Boost. There’s a noticeable surge when you shift to Boost, with a more audible whine from the motors. 

The setup is tuned to offer good grunt at low to medium speeds, though understandably performance tapers off a bit as you build speeds, and top speed in fact is limited to 85kmph. After all, the car is meant to tackle bumper to bumper city traffic rather than quick highway jaunts. In terms of performance the e2oPlus clearly doesn’t feel lacking then, and you don’t really miss the engine as we know it. Where the e2o leaves you slightly wanting though is the handling part. It isn’t engineered to be driven like a hot hatch, and the steering wheel isn’t the best in the business to hold. It doesn’t offer much feedback either though it does feel rather direct and the e2oPlus is quick to change direction. The car feels slightly heavy around corners despite weighing less than a tonne, but the motor does a good job of offering ample drive exiting corners. Ride quality feels perfectly fine on smooth roads despite the stiffly sprung suspension but there are a few thuds when you get to rough sections or hit potholes. The e2oPlus could also do with sharper brakes, since the current setup doesn’t offer enough bite and you need to press the pedal harder to get the kind of retardation you want.

The e2oPlus feels abundant in terms of space, with ample legroom at the rear, and clearly, the additional 300mm of wheelbase has worked its magic. Not to forget, the boot offers a respectable 135 litres of volume, which is good to stow away a couple of duffel bags. Ingress and egress from the rear doors though can be a bit of a bother, especially for the elderly, as the rear wheel arches limit the opening. The B-pillar is set far too behind as well, since each time I had to strap myself into the driver’s seat I had to reach out behind to pull the seat belt to fasten it. There’s good headroom for the average Indian, and that’s despite the battery pack sitting under the front seats. The ground clearance at 170mm is good enough to help you negotiate over broken roads and speed breakers as well.  

The e2oPlus is a mixed bag in terms of the way it looks though. The good news is it looks a lot like a conventional hatchback, thanks to its bigger dimensions and four doors. The design isn’t suited to everyone’s taste though and while some might like the family look with the rakish headlights and the typical Mahindra grille, some might find it to be quirky looking. The odd looking line on the window has been retained, though a nice design cue are the rear door handles mounted near the C-pillar like the KUV100. It looks like a regular hatchback from the rear, and that’s certainly welcome along with the conventionally opening rear hatch.

The interiors are pretty conventional too, and the e2oPlus sports a dashboard like most other hatchbacks, replete with a touchscreen infotainment system that includes navigation and Bluetooth connectivity. The clocks or rather single clock (large, circular display screen) behind the steering wheel looks unconventional but is nice to look at with its soft blue backlight and offers important information like range, charge status and the like apart from the speedometer. The door pockets aren’t big enough to hold 1-litre bottles though and the fact that the doors and most of the body aren’t metal feel slightly odd, especially when shutting a door. The seats could have been plusher too and are best suited for short drives only. 

On the whole, the e2oPlus is a big step forward as far as electric cars in the country are concerned. It is the only practical option in case you’re looking for a four door, four seater electric car. That said, it is hard to perceive the e2oPlus as anything more than the second or third car in the garage but it is certainly a product that introduces us Indians to the concept of commuting in an electric car. The battery pack requires about 8-9 hours for a full charge, though there is the option of a quick charger that recharges the battery in just 90 minutes. The quick charger should be an expensive proposition, but not something you can’t do without. 

Mahindra is offering a 3-year, 60,000km warranty as well, which indeed sweetens the deal. The car has been priced at Rs 5.46 lakh to 8.46 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). Quite the way to help save the planet, and certainly a step forward by Mahindra, especially since the e2oPlus is truly practical. It is also a product that should have other manufacturers take notice of the potential in the electric car space, while encouraging car buyers to go green.