Back in 2018, Vazirani Automotive made headlines after unveiling the Shul and now it is back at it again, having taken the wraps off the Ekonk, its new hypercar. The company claims that the Ekonk is not only India's fastest electric car, but also the lightest electric vehicle in the world. The Ekonk has two electric motors on the rear axle which produce a total output of 712bhp. It weighs in at only 738kg because of its lightweight carbonfibre body and has been tested to a top speed of 309kmph.
The Ekonk is a one-off testbed for the new battery technology that Vazirani Automotive has developed and its learnings will be put into the company's upcoming hypercar, the Shul.
The car has been named 'Ekonk', because it signifies the company’s real beginning. "In Indian scriptures, Ekonk signifies the beginning of the divine light – the Big Bang,” says Chunky Vazirani, founder of the company. “For us, Ekonk signifies our real beginning, where, for the first time, design and innovation come together. It’s our first vehicle that’s alive." Vazirani Automotive’s aforementioned Shul, has also been named after Lord Shiva's trishul, which it takes inspiration from for its aerodynamic design.
In terms of the design of the Ekonk, aerodynamics have been given utmost importance and that shows in the swoopy design it boasts. The body is fully made of carbonfibre and the Ekonk is a single-seater for some serious weight savings. Speaking of which, Vazirani has chopped-off the car's roof and made it an open-cockpit vehicle. EVs are usually very heavy because of the cooling tech they incorporate for the batteries, but Vazirani's newly developed DiCo technology has enabled them to reduce that weight significantly. Less weight results in a faster car and in the case of an EV, it translates to more range. So Vazirani Automotive has removed the heavy roof and windshield of the Ekonk which not only makes the car lighter and more efficient but the weight savings just add into giving it the purest driving experience.
At the front, the Ekonk features a sharp nose, which helps it cut through the air, with a full-width LED light bar. There is a prominent air vent, which pops up and out of the body to deliver air to the batteries on the left side of the driver, normally where the passenger would be and the Ekonk gets covered rear wheels that reads "EK" which stands for "one" in Hindi. Moving on to the rear, which is quite dramatic, the Ekonk features an open design, most likely the exit route for its air-cooled battery tech, with not one or two but five full-width LED light bars.
The Vazirani Ekonk's two electric motors produce a combined output of 712bhp and each of the motors rev to 11,000rpm. It's fully carbonfibre body gives it a feather weight of just 738kg. With those numbers, the Ekonk almost comes close to hitting the golden 1:1 power-to-weight ratio. Vazirani Automotive has tested the Ekonk at the newly developed National Automotive Test Tracks' (NATRAX) high speed oval. Driven by Chunky Vazirani himself, the Ekonk achieved a top speed of 309kmph and despite being rear-wheel-drive only, it did the 0-100kmph sprint in a very quick 2.54 seconds. And that makes it one of the fastest accelerating cars in the world. Although the Ekonk is an open-cockpit vehicle, Vazirani also claims that it has a very low drag coefficient, which is currently unknown.
While Vazirani Automotive hasn't given away full details of the battery yet, one thing we know is that the Ekonk will be RWD, courtesy of the two motors present on the rear axle powering each of the rear wheels. Each motor can perform real-time torque vectoring and that omits the need to have a differential, which results in more weight savings. Moreover, Vazirani has developed a new cooling tech, especially for the Ekonk, which promises some impressive weight-saving feats too. Dubbed 'DiCo', it eliminates the need to have all the heavy piping structure needed to cool down the batteries, replacing it with the principle of air cooling. "If you look at a Tesla Model S, it's insane the amount of piping it has for cooling each of the battery cells it has, that is almost 600 to 700kg, we wanted that to be the total weight of the Ekonk, and that is why we have developed DiCo which has helped us put the Ekonk on a serious diet," Chunky Vazirani
The company claims that the Ekonk weighs in at just 738kg. To give you a perspective, it is over 113kg lighter than the track-spec version of Gordon Murray Automotive's hypercar, the T.50s Niki Lauda. And given that the Ekonk is an EV, compared to the T.50s which is powered by an ICE, that is an impressive achievement.
Speaking about the Ekonk, Vazirani shared that, “With the advent of electric vehicles, companies around the world have to start from a blank canvas. This is the perfect time for India to innovate, develop and pioneer this EV era.”
While the Ekonk is a test-bed for what the company might have in store for the future, the founder adds that a lucky few might be able to get their hands on it as early as 2023. For now the electric-car startup has its plans fully focused on their first hypercar, the Shul.