Manza with range extender to lead Tata Motors’ electric vehicle drive

Sustainability and electric vehicle technology are among the key focus areas for Tata Motors’Horizonext philosophy.

The Tata Motors European Technical Centre (TMETC), based at the University of Warwick in Coventry, UK, has been making steady progress in R&D in this area culminating in the development of a Manza REEV (range extended electric vehicle) demonstrator vehicle.

This vehicle incorporates a lot of the learnings from the TMETC’s in-house research into high voltage distribution systems, battery design and vehicle controller development. TMETC, which is part of Tata Motors’ global R&D network and works in sync with the automaker’s three design studios in Pune, Coventry and Turin, has been driving development and innovation of all Tata Motors products, including the upcoming Zest sedan and Bolt hatchback.

The Manza REEV, which has been undergoing extensive testing at the TMETC currently, has a pure electric range of 55miles/88km with a low-cost auxillary motor developed in-house based on existing internal combustion engine technology kicking in on request to allow the driver to continue the journey in hybrid mode.

While we didn’t get a chance to drive the Manza REEV, the engineering team at TMETC says the car has excellent driveability and a 0-100kph time of less than 15 seconds. The estimated top speed is 85mph/136kph.

Tata Motors’ focus on electric vehicle technology encompasses mico-hybrid, mild hybrid, full EV and range extender technologies but the company feels that range extenders may be a better and more core cost-effective solution for markets like India that lack the infrastructure to support full electric vehicles. In fact, the company claims that the overall cost of a range extender-equipped vehicle using the company’s in-house battery system will cost less than the full battery on a purely electric vehicle.