Honda Activa modified into a petrol-electric hybrid scooter

Honda Activa is the most popular scooter in the Indian market. It is the scooter that kick-started the market for gearless scooters. Needless to say that the Activa has sold in great numbers. Now, the prices of petrol have crossed Rs. 100 per litre. This has put an effect on the pockets of many people. Due to this, people are finding alternative sources of fuels. Here is a video in which the person has converted his Activa into a hybrid.

The video is uploaded by LUCKY ELECTRONICS LAB. The Activa in the video can run on petrol as well as electricity. So, it is a hybrid scooter. So, there is an internal combustion engine as well as a battery pack that powers the Activa.

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There is a charging point installed right below the grocery hook that comes on Activa scooters. The battery has been installed and stored in the under-seat storage of the Activa. There is also an MCB installed right next to the battery. So, you can turn off and on the battery.

The electric motor can run on 48 Volt, 60 Volt and 72 Volt. Depending on the voltage the speed of the scooter can be increased or decreased. So, on 48 Volt the scooter is slow as compared to 60 or 72 Volt. The owner is using the scooter on 48 Volt because he owns another similar hybrid Activa which is also running on 48 Volts.

When running on 48 Volts, the top speed is capped at 40 kmph. Whereas on 72 Volts the scooter should hit 60 kmph fairly easily. There is a switch installed towards the right side of the keyhole through which you can shift the drivetrain to electric or petrol. One issue that the owner was facing is that the headlight does not work when the engine is not running. So, an additional set of lamps have been installed that can be switched on from another switch.

You can even reverse the scooter in an electric mode which can come in handy if you are stuck in parking or need assistance. Another reason for installing a reversing system was that the scooter has become quite heavy because of the battery. So, additional assistance was required while reversing.

The electric motor has been installed on the rear tyre. It is compulsory that the rear tyre is tubeless in order to convert the scooter into a hybrid. This is important because it can be quite a task to undo everything and remove the motor just to fix the puncture. When compared, the tubeless tyres are much easier to fix. A thing that the owner points out is that the scooter is not able to climb inclines. So, you would have to use the petrol engine to climb the inclines.

The battery pack is waterproof. The kit includes a battery, throttle and electric motor. The kit also supports Honda Aviator, Cliq, Dio, Grazia and Navi. It also supports some scooters from Hero like Maestro, Pleasure, Destini and Duet. The electric motor produces 1.5 kW of power and 30 Nm of peak torque.

Range

Now, let’s discuss the most important thing and that is the riding range. While running on 48 Volts the scooter returns 50 km of range. The procedure cost the owner around Rs. 50,000. The battery life is expected to be a minimum of 3 years.

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