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The year was 2010. The sun had barely risen and I had barely slept. I was sitting in the back of my friend’s old, red Volkswagen Beetle with 3 other friends. My friend was driving the car while the rest of us were screaming. The Beetle was an old car. His parents bought it for him from a guy who’d barely taken care of it. Most of the time, it would start. Other times we had to push it with hopes of getting the engine started. It was loud though, and it spewed smoke.
The brakes barely worked. Like an imbecile, my friend had installed a tacky aftermarket spinner knob on an even tackier “racing” steering wheel. I would have much preferred it if he had repaired the passenger side door, which refused to stay shut, instead. It was not a car that instilled any sort of confidence or sense of safety in its occupants, but it never stopped my friend from driving it like a maniac. Which brings me back to the screaming. As we were barrelling through some open road one early morning, driving like absolute scumbags,
I was screaming from the backseat of the car begging him to stop. But, only half-heartedly. If truth be told, I was having the time of my life. As a teenager, almost dying was a lot of fun and bolting down the tarmac on a death machine was exhilarating… as long as we eventually came to a stop and laughed and hollered. That was what made us happy, and to this day I look back on experiences like those with a smile on my face.
Today, more than a decade later, I prefer to drive rather than sit in the back seat. I prefer cars that start without having to push them, stop sharply when I hit the brakes, and have doors that remain shut once I close them. I also want my cars to be efficient, value for money, practical, and hopefully still fun to drive. These are usually the base parameters that I have in my head when I set out to review a sensible car. All of which the Henreypromised to be.
The Henrey MinCar Model H has an electric motor that provides a range of 200+ kilometres (185kms NEDC) on a single full charge and swears that you only spend Re.1 per every kilometre you drive it.
From the outside, it looks alright. It’s a cute little thing. Tiny, roundish, beady-eyed. Loveable. No one will accuse you of overcompensating for anything. As opposed to its tiny stature, inside, it’s surprisingly spacious. We managed to fit three people in the back seat comfortably, with headroom to spare. Leg space in the front was absolutely phenomenal, you can stretch your legs out completely, to the point that it begins feeling awkward and wrong.
The interiors aren’t going to floor you, but they are still decent. It isn’t all hard plastic everywhere which is a positive. You get a manual AC which is simple but works well. The fan speed and cooling intensity of the AC increase with every successive press of the button. Unfortunately, you have no other way of controlling, or even telling which level you’re on except by how loud the fan is or by how cold the air feels on your skin. There’s also a button that reads PTC on the console which operates the semi-automated heating system which we couldn’t bring ourselves to try because it was sweltering hot.
Modern tech comes in the form of an integrated digital touch screen that is a 10-inch LCD unit. The display of the reversing camera is decent for the vehicle, but that is where the positives end. Operating it feels like you’re using a simple Chinese digital tablet or MP3 player that you used to get from shops in Mahaboudha back in the day. It was laggy and difficult to operate. It took us 5 minutes to figure out where the volume controls were. The audio also sounded like something you would expect to come from a speaker you would have bought from the same shop in Mahaboudha.
Honestly, I’m probably complaining too much and setting my expectations a little too high for this car. However, since I’m already complaining, another quip I have is that the reverse parking sensor is too loud and gets triggered too quickly. What’s worse is, I couldn’t find a way to turn it off. In terms of practicality, you get two cup holders, large map pockets on the doors, and a 150L boot space.
To drive it, all you have to do is depress the brakes, press the button that reads D on the console, and you’re off. This is a car built for the city, and it fares best in the city. The Henrey MinCar zips in and out of traffic effortlessly. Driving it is as easy as apple pie. There is enough power to move all 5 occupants around comfortably. There is regenerative braking that sends power back to the battery.
In terms of safety, you get features like ABS and EBD and Hill Hold Assist, surprisingly though, no Airbags in sight. The price? Well, that comes in at Rs. 23,50,000, which is cheaper than any ICE vehicle in the market. It doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles; in fact, it doesn’t even have airbags. But, to be fair, it’s never taken airbags to have fun in a car; which at the end of the day, the Henrey proved to be.
On an open stretch of road, with the sun beginning to set, I switched to Sport Mode and absolutely floored the accelerator. The Henrey MinCar Model H picked up speed slowly but it eventually went very fast. It wasn’t stable, and it did not instil even the slightest bit of confidence in me. But, all of my friends in the car yelled and screamed for me to stop. And that made me happy.
