Actually there is another vehicle better suited for turning to EV, with kerb weight of 800 kg and gross weight of 1400 kg - which means 600 kg of stuff can be added without leaning on safety aspects. It also has a flat bed for those heavy batteries. Drawback - hardly any safety / crumple zone.
Have a look at this vehicle
Omni from Maruti Suzuki
@Wilden - It is not true that the prices of cars in the first world are marked up substantially. It is the other way round. everybody from politicians to car manufacturers think that a car is a luxury item to be taxed heavily/fleeced at every stage, and the Third World buyer ends up spending much more than the First World buyer. We also get dumped all vehicles withdrawn and substituted with better models from the rest of the world. Also no standards enforced - OBD is still not required by law, and naturally auto mfrs pinch pennies, except only when pinching is costlier than not.
I just checked an example - on-road price for the Honda Civic Hybrid - the only hybrid available in India - $45k equivalent in INR !!!