[Rehaan]

Did you know that the best-selling electric vehicle in the world (up till 2009) is made in India? Yep, the Reva (REVAi / G-Wiz) held that title once upon a time (though the current #1 is the Nissan Leaf).



In May 2010, Mahindra bought a 55% stake in the “Reva Electric Car Company”. Its now known as Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles.

The Reva NXR is their first offering since Mahindra got involved. It’s a 2-door hatchback than can seat 4 people. It was first shown at the Frankfurt Motorshow in 2009. In fact, one of our members even got a test-drive : link. We’ve even got some scoop pictures of the interior here : link

Mahindra claims that you’ll spend only 3-5% of the per Km running costs of a regular petrol car on the NXR. (Its safe to assume that this is only for dense Indian traffic conditions – and is calculated on a fuel vs electricity basis, with no other costs taken into consideration).

Dilip Chhabria had a part to play in the initial design direction of the NXR’s exteriors. The rest of the styling, including the interiors was done in-house by the REVA R&D and Styling team. Though this hatchback is targeted more towards sales abroad than in India, it will also be sold here.

Unlike the previous REVAs which didn’t have to go through NCAP crash testing (since they was considered “heavy quadracycles”), the NXR will run the full suite of NCAP tests.


The Reva NXR has two variants (based on the type of battery technology used) :

City
Battery : Lead acid (80 km range)
Price: 6 - 7 lakhs (on road)
Launch: Early 2012

Intercity
Battery: Lithium-ion (160 km range)
Price: 9 – 10 lakhs (on road)
Launch: November, 2012

There is also the possibility of 3 different battery size options being offered too. This sounds good because it will regulate the cost (batteries are expensive!), and each buyer can choose a size based on their own usage pattern.




Note the Mahindra logo on the car!

[Rehaan]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line section

[Rahulkool]

Why there is a Radiator grill on this car . its nice looking car, is it bigger than original one ? also if its a car or still quadracycle(because it can be sold in European countries with passing safety norms etc) ? If its same as the old model then 10L is lot of money for it.

[dkaile]

This is a concept which we all need to be excited and wary about in the same breath. Excited, because its a zero emission platform. Wary, because like any other source, it's raw materials (Lithium and Electricity) are both limited, as of now.

[Guna]

Originally Posted by Rahulkool

Why there is a Radiator grill on this car . its nice looking car, is it bigger than original one ? also if its a car or still quadracycle(because it can be sold in European countries with passing safety norms etc) ? If its same as the old model then 10L is lot of money for it.

Because every car DC designs (or modifies) will have a aggressive grill, whether the car requires it or not.

[Latheesh]

I have spotted one last sunday and is much better than current one. It was doing some good speed.

[mayankjha1806]

This one is surely looking better then the older one, but what with 6-7L OTR and 9-10L OTR. I believe this is way overpriced for only city commute. Would not be comfortable paying so much for this, something under 5L OTR would get folks like me very interested.

[mgh]

Originally Posted by Rahulkool

Why there is a Radiator grill on this car . its nice looking car, is it bigger than original one ? also if its a car or still quadracycle(because it can be sold in European countries with passing safety norms etc) ? If its same as the old model then 10L is lot of money for it.

Originally Posted by Guna

Because every car DC designs (or modifies) will have a aggressive grill, whether the car requires it or not.

Higher capacity electric motors need cooling, which is normally built-in with a cooling fan. A higher capacity motor cannot be installed in a closed space.
Even a 1 kw water pump motor has a cooling fan built-in, and needs to be installed with provision for ventilation.

Reason is simple. Even with a 90% efficiency, 10% of the power input is converted to heat. In the case of a 1 kw motor, efficiency will be around 80%, and 200 W is converted into heat.

[mjothi]

finally a Reva that looks like a CAR

But seriously looks much much better than the old one. Keep it up M&M!

[Guna]

Originally Posted by mgh

Higher capacity electric motors need cooling, which is normally built-in with a cooling fan. A higher capacity motor cannot be installed in a closed space.
Even a 1 kw water pump motor has a cooling fan built-in, and needs to be installed with provision for ventilation.

Reason is simple. Even with a 90% efficiency, 10% of the power input is converted to heat. In the case of a 1 kw motor, efficiency will be around 80%, and 200 W is converted into heat.

If that is true why there is no grill on current Reva or any other electric vehicles (say leaf) we see. Motor may require cooling but you dont need a large grill which you see in cars with radiator (which cool the IC engine which produces tremendous heat).
The point I was making was the design philosophy of DC is unusual IMHO. Forms do not follow function (another example is the dropping window-line near the rear pillar just like you normally see in the front , near the A pillar)
By now all electric cars seem to have some kind of identity (including the Tata concept which is unveiled http://www.autocarindia.com/News/286...t-detroit.aspx). Grill is semantically associated with the cars with front engines.

[DeKay]

I quite liked the design. DC has done a good job (For Once).

But, apart from that, when it comes to price, I think it is simply overpriced. They're gonna have a hard time finding buyers who would be interested in a car which has a range of just 160kms tops, and costs a million Rupees. Sure, the electric thing and cost saving is a USP, but let's face it, there are much practical options out there for half the price.

6L OTR would probably be OK for a car like this.

[theMAG]

I'd seen this contraption being driven continuously on the NICE expressway for testing, between Hosur Road-Bannerghatta Road atleast 1 year ago.

On a related note, I agree with James May's views on electric cars- they're not the alternative green and seamless solution they're portrayed to be. This cannot be truer in an Indian context - the marketing spiel above about minimized running costs cannot be further from the truth - considering the costs of battery replacement. Factoring that, this electric car's running cost is on-par with conventional cars.

Good export potential though - this should be considerably cheaper than the Leaf.

[IronH4WK]

^ I've seen it too, more than a year back, on the BETL with temporary registration plates. I had posted the picture too on Team-BHP.

[SirAlec]

Cheatan Maini got million of dollars from a foreign NGO as aid money to improve on his venture long time ago. He sold stake to Mahindra too.

I wonder what he did with all those money. Because I didn't see any major breakthrough like Chevy Volt or Nissan Leaf in this company.

[Ym-enjn]

Was waiting for this one. Thanks again Rehaan. This cars comes in the list of my top 5 cars of the expo. It has got nice aggressive looks. I hope they launch it in 600cc or 800cc petrol engine option with good FE. Have potential to do good.