Chetan Maini,Founder & CTO,REVA Electric Car Company,in a short talk to IndianExpress.com tells Ashok Kumar about the next generation Reva.
Known in the Indian auto sector as a technology innovator Reva Electric Car Company (RECC),a Bangalore based firm formed as a joint venture between Maini Group of India and AEV LLC of California is all set to launch the latest version of the pollution free electric car.
Having been commercialized in June 2001,Reva is committed towards promoting environmentally and socially responsible motoring across the globe,and stands as a pioneering electric vehicle for the city mobility.
RECC is all set to launch its next generation variant of the electric vehicle which would be commercially available around 2009. This new avatar of Reva is said to be powered by Lithium Ion Batteries and are capable of covering a range of up to 120 kilometers per charge which is significantly higher compared to the 80 kilometers per charge of the earlier version.
What gives an edge to this latest version of Reva is an additional provision of the roof mounted solar power panels,enabling the vehicle to harness the suns energy and further augment drive power and achieve the increased range.
Chetan Kumar Maini,founder & CTO,Reva Electric Car Company has over 15 years work experience in developing over 6 solar,Hybrid and Electric Vehicles in the United States and India. Talking about the next generation technology enabled Reva,Maini explained how technology is the driving aspect to keep him continuously motivated in this venture. With the next generation cars,Reva has once again proved its technology leadership and highlighted the role of electric vehicles as one of the viable transport options to battle environmental issues, Maini asserted.
When asked why the car has a limited success in the country,commercially,despite being a zero polluting vehicle and having a low running cost,Maini attributed the cause to the low popularity of the electric vehicles and the concept being non-traditional for the Indian market.
Bangalore based RECC which has an installed capacity of 6000 units and over 275 employees has over 3000 vehicles on the road and is also being test marketed in countries in South America,South East Asia and Europe. Maini sounded quite positive talking about the future prospects of the sale of the electric car. We are going to focus more on popularizing the car and its merits. This year we should close around 1000 cars and for the next year the target is 4000 cars, Maini said.