The world’s biggest electric vehicle factory is being built in India, according to the Reva Electric Car Company. But will the clutchless, gearless Reva (known as the G-Wiz in the UK) be much of a rival to internal combution-based Tata Nano, much feted as the world’s cheapest car? Tata Group after all is a huge multinational conglomerate and India’s biggest private-held company. More than 200,000 Nanos have been ordered and paid for – less than the 500,000 the company was hoping for, but on a much bigger scale than the Reva.
Reva’s founder, Chetan Maini told the FT’s Joe Leahy:
The company has sold only about 3,000 vehicles to date, but he expects sales of up to 2,000 this year, half of them in India and the rest in at least 20 overseas markets, which include Norway, Spain and the Philippines. This would be three to four times the volume of last year, and Mr Maini predicts growth will be of this order for the next few years. “We’ve gone through the slow, testing phase. Now it’s time to take off,” he says.
There are quite a few challenges, however. Analysts believe the company will need help from large corporate rivals to become a mass consumer item – and Tata Motors is certainly a large rival.Those Reva specs:
Reva’s cheeky snub-nosed, two-door hatch-back, which seats two in the front and two in the rear, sells for Rs300,000 ($6,132, €4,383, £3,775) in India and £7,000 in Britain. It can run at 8,000 revolutions per minute. This translates into surprisingly quick acceleration – as fast as a conventional car.
The Reva is simple to drive, with no clutch or gears. Maintenance is low – the car has only 1,000 parts, a fifth the number of a conventional vehicle.
After 2½ hours plugged into an ordinary socket, Reva’s eight, six-volt EV lead acid batteries will be 80 per cent charged, although a full charge takes nine to 10 hours. This will power the car for a distance of 80km.
And n India at least, the emissions savings are compromised by the country’s lack of renewable electricity generation: the Reva producers 63 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre compared to the Nano’s 101 grams.
Related links:
India’s Reva plugs into electric car market (FT, 15/07/09)
