Mohammad Jawaad Khan is a 23-year-old Indian engineer, pioneering the conversion of fossil fuel-guzzling vintage cars and modern IC engine four-wheeler cars into electric vehicles (EV) in India with his Delhi-based startup Tadpole Projects. The company was incorporated on 29th August 2020 and is closely associated with the Center of Excellence for Research on Clean Air (CERCA) at IIT-Delhi.

The process of doing this is by changing the engine only.  The originality of the car remains the same by removing the kit and putting your engine back.

The startup has already retrofitted vintage cars like 

• Volkswagen Beetle (1948) 
• An Austin 10 (1936)

  Modern models of four-wheelers like – 

• The Maruti Swift Dezire and 
• Hyundai Santro

Tadpole Projects has retrofitted 15 cars across different categories till the present day like 

• Vintage, 
• Passenger, 
• Logistic, and 
• Premium.

 It is now in the process of working on heavy-duty vehicles.  

When we asked about how the idea came up the founder Jawaad Khan?

Jawaad Khan said ”I did a college project that converted an IC car to an EV. That’s how it started.”

The sole purpose of the company is to solve the problem of pollution and government policy for 10 years for diesel and 15 years for petrol. Jawaad Khan wanted to solve the problem of reusing the vintage car with electricity. Also, converting these types of vehicles into electric would give them an additional lifespan of five to seven years on road. 

Jawaad Always had an Interest in Innovation

Jawaad’s father, a shopkeeper, runs a small store in the tourist town of Bhaderwah, while his mother is a government school teacher. 

Bhaderwah has a relatively high literacy rate (86.6%), although very few venture into entrepreneurship. 

But before Jawaad ever thought of becoming an entrepreneur, he grew a deep fascination for making and innovating things and science.

We asked Jawaad Khan where he sees the startup 5 years from now.?

Jawaad Khan replies, ”I see tadpole as the market leader In EV Retrofitment with a very mature and safe solution for customers.” in the conversation with the inspired valley team 

With an immediate reason to switch over to Electric Vehicles from the high-consumption el-based vehicles. As of now, the company focuses on customized and affordable solutions for your existing IC engine cars to Electric. 

Indian

• Achievers Award winner
• Best E-mobility startup award by AICRA
• Indian Post office launches special postal cover on a first vintage car.

Work Done 

• The 1936 Austin 10 vintage car, Jawaad is following a similar process of replacing its engine with a 15 KW motor, which allows the vehicle to attain a top speed of 60 kmph. The car can reach higher speeds of say 70mph, but it will affect the battery range and performance. Maintaining 90% of the original body of the car, his team connected the electrical motor to the rear wheel drive of the car coupled with a gearbox.

• He has also attached a 72V 220 Ah (Amp-Hours) lithium iron phosphate battery, which offers a battery range of 150 km on a single charge. It typically takes five to six hours to charge the car using an AC charger. On DC chargers, it can be done in three.

Plans of the Organization 

The startup has received initial funding of Rs 25 lakh for initial setup and operational costs. 

They are currently in the final stages with multiple investors for further funding and are on the cusp of receiving approval from ARAI and ICAT. 

Meanwhile, they were recently approached by a major Bengaluru-based car rental company to retrofit 100 cars per month.

The startup is doing well and so we asked the founder Jawaad Khan to motivate our youth who wants to start something of their own. 

He says, ”I’ll put it this way, find a problem, look for a solution, check its scalability and start working on it, believe in yourself, and make a small team of like-minded people systematically. Define short goals which are measurable & achievable. Lastly, do your best universe will do the rest. ”

Conclusion 

The work done by the Tadpole projects is to reduce pollution and enhance vehicle productivity by changing the mode of movement. Hope this brings a cleaner and greener environment.  Startups are the next business model of developing countries like India. When an idea becomes reality it becomes a business. 

Stay tuned for more with inspiredvalley for more stories like this, and if you know any founder who is making a difference in the Indian startup ecosystem, please ask them to write to us at [email protected] – we will surely cover the story.