[swarnava.ch]

This story needs to be told for the benefit of fellow members who may be thinking about acquiring electric cars as their daily rides, fence sitters who are not yet able to put the money on the table when it comes to electric cars and lastly, to clarify the pros and cons from a daily driver perspective and what it means to live with an electric car as your daily ride.

That said, please excuse any mistakes that I make and share feedback so that I can improve. I am a newbie member and still learning the protocol of this community. I will not add many technical details that already shared in the Official Review, but only add some points from my perspective.




We call her Rampyari – trusted and dependable which will always take you when you want to go some place nearby.

So, it all started in 2016. Our current organization was promoting electric vehicle ownership as part of Company Car lease. Mind you, this was the time when the electric car scene was almost nascent in the country with very few choices. The first-gen Reva cars would be seen often on Bangalore roads. However, they would only get curious looks and the occasional smiles of fellow commuters.

The only realistic choice was the Mahindra / Reva E2O T2 – two door car.

Due to the lease tie-up with Mahindra and bulk procurement, there was huge interest in the offer in our organization. There was a lottery for the first 50 members who would get a special discount on their cars. I waited for some more time and finally, after another 2 months, booked mine.

My wife was very keen on red colour and Mahindra informed us that only white was available for immediate delivery. Red needed to be manufactured and it would take 15 days after confirmed booking. We were sure, so went ahead and confirmed. Now I guess this was the time when Mahindra was already preparing for the 4 Door version of the E2O so I was offered a discount of Rs. 1 lakh from Mahindra and another Rs. 1 lakh due to the FAME subsidy by the government. On top of this, electric cars didn’t have to pay Road Tax and had a small registration amount. So, the final car cost was as follows:
Original Car cost (ex-showroom) Rs. 8,24,xxx and we got it for Rs. 6,24,xxx.

Now for the next question on the mind of every buyer: "What about the charging infrastructure?"

So, as a lot of our colleagues in office were using electric cars and our organization was promoting electric mobility as part of the sustainability initiative, our office had 25 charging bays, which were set up by Mahindra on the campus in addition to fast chargers etc.

Mind you, my car only had the regular 15 Amp charging system and the fast charging option meant an additional Rs. 1 lakh increase in cost.
However, I realized that I would not need it considering that I did’t mind overnight charging and this would be our secondary car and not the first choice for outstation travel.

Other factors which impacted the decision of buying E2O:
1. We needed a small and compact car for my wife to drive
2. This was only for daily commute to office where the distance in each direction would be 3 km only.
3. I also installed a charging facility in my apartment's basement parking. Now, this was a bit tricky at that time as I had to take the permission of the apartment association, get a wire drawn from my electric meter to my parking so that the costs are billed to my flat, and the wiring for this had to consist of good 3 ply 15 Amp wires. I also had to have a locked box to prevent misuse by others.

The Driving Routine - Now let’s look at my daily commute and charging pattern and other nuances.

We used to take this car out for our daily office commute. In the morning rush hour and bumper-to-bumper traffic and this would be our preferred car. We just loved the car's small dimensions, very small turning radius, superb pickup – I mean this cannot be explained if you have not driven an electric car yet. There is just instant torque available on tap and you can give the Fortuner standing next to you a run for its money to the next red light, because by the time he switches gear to drive after the lights turn green, you would already be seeing him in your rear view mirror.

However, be careful, the acceleration just tapers off after 50 to 60 km/h and the max you can go on to is 75 - 80 km/h. So, the Fortuner guy will definitely overtake you eventually and give you a dirty look.

You can keep enjoying the AC's cooling and the music system at the red light waiting while you are stuck without any guilt of fuel wastage.
Also it would be me, wife and my son in the car on our way to school / office and back.

The rear seats are small and its difficult to get into in the two door version as you have to slide the front seat forward and climb in. So, if you have aged parents, they will curse you for buying this car whenever one of them has to climb into the back seat. But, my son used to love it.

The space is enough for 4 people once everybody gets in. The rear is a bit claustrophobic as there are no roll down glasses and the window line is a bit high.We would even take the car out for quick weekend shopping, visit to relatives etc whenever we drove down to the city interiors.

Ride Quality:
The ride quality is very firm and stiff. I once drove from Whitefield in Bangalore to Mysore road to my friend's place, which was a good 28 km or so and came away with a back ache. You have to be specially careful and slow over broken roads as they will give you strong jolts. I guess it boils down to a hard suspension setup, which is made to accommodate the heavy batteries that are set in the floor and in the base of the seats.

Also, the car has a tall boy design, so cornering above 30 or 40 km/h will give you a feeling that it will lose traction. So, it's better to slow down. It's not a corner carver.

The car is very silent as there is no ICE engine. You will hear the suspension very often over bad roads though. On top of this, there is a slight whirring noise from the electric motor which you will love.

The rear seats were very thin, with less cushioning and a bit of an upright stance, which makes them a bit less comfortable. There is the occasional sound of the fan which cools the batteries. It keeps working in the background to maintain optimum temperature for the batteries.

Braking Performance:
The brakes have a very strong bite and if you are not careful, you will suddenly stop in the middle of the road where the guy the car driving behind you will bang into your car. I doubt if the car has ABS, but the performance of the brakes is confidence inspiring. Also if you remove your foot off the accelerator, there is no hard regenerative action like in new-gen electric cars. However, the car keeps on moving with coasting while the regenerative system will work to get 20% of the kinetic energy back to the battery.

Build:
The car is built nicely. The body panels are ABS and small hits here and there will not create much of a problem. The panels don’t flex easily. However, one issue you will see very often with E2Os is the broken number plates at the front as the grille holding it is very thin and a slight shove is enough to break it. The paint quality is good.

ICE Experience and AC: The car came with a resistive touchscreen which had many cool features. The touch experience was sub par due to the resistive nature. However, it had local maps installed which came preloaded in an SD card. With this, you could navigate within the city and also find / navigate to the nearest charging point. These would usually be Mahindra service stations equipped with a free charging facility. It had Bluetooth for phone connectivity and the audio quality was average. It had a known issue with FM Radio where the reception quality would be very poor. After repeated complaints, the service engineer agreed that it was due to the electromagnetic interference from the car and it was a design issue - could not be improved. It was not so terrible that you could not use FM, but let's just say in basements where other cars can still play FM radio, this car will produce static.

The AC of the car was ok, but the rear seat passengers would complain as the throw of the fan was not adequate to cool the complete car quickly enough. It would take time.


Automatic, Really ?
Though the car comes with an Automatic sticker, it's just clever engineering from Mahindra. There is not an actual transmission but what you have is just a switch which controls Forward and Reverse movement of the electric motor. The switch is in the shape of a gear level so that you get the feeling of driving a traditional car. There is also a Sport mode on the lever which gives you very quick acceleration at the cost of battery. It will drain your battery on the double.

Charging pattern: The car needed 6.5 hours to charge from 10% to 100 % over a standard Home 15 Amp socket. The car comes with claimed 120 kms range at full charge however I could only do a max 90 kms once when I was determined to test this claim but to achieve this you had to do very patient driving, No AC only Fan, No quick acceleration etc and by the time I was back in the parking it was showing 12% battery remaining.

Once charged you can use it over 3 days as the recommendation from the service expert was, even if you are not driving the car you have to charge it at least every 3rd day so that batteries' health is maintained. Also, if you charge fully and don’t drive, the car loses 3% charge every 24 hours.

I set a pattern of charging on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in the week so that I would have sufficient charging for my driving needs. On weekdays my drive would only be 6 to 10 kms a day. However, on weekends, it would be almost 50 – 60 km for all other trips. I used to charge the car at office. When I arrive, I just plugged it in the standard 15 amps socket and went to my desk. While coming back in the evening, plug out, and take the fully charged car home.

Also, the last point here, a lot of people would raise concerns on the availability of charging infrastructure in cities. While the point is valid, let me tell you about the reality. Things are improving and they are improving for good. I used to go to malls and use the park and charge facilities. A lot of malls provide free charging for E2Os. Then, there is the Ather Grid App which shows you available charging stations nearby where you can take your car for charging. Then, there is the home charging socket of 15 Amp.

My biggest support was my office which provided regular charging for Electric cars and Fast charging as well for free to employees. I have heard that other offices and business parks are also planning to provide such common facilities. So, things are improving. We need a bit more time. In my apartment, I have 2 more residents with E2Os and 3 Electric Scooters of different brands. I guess more consumers are now getting hooked on to the electric bandwagon.

Note - Never charge the car under the hot sun. This results in the car getting very hot and will increase charging time as the battery management system has to work overtime to maintain optimum temperature for the batteries.

Mahindra used to provide a mobile app which could communicate to the car and give you statistics like charging status and distance to empty. You could turn one AC remotely, lock / unlock the car remotely. Imagine how cool this was in 2016 when connected cars were still just concepts. We would happily showoff to our friends all these fancy features.

Who should buy an electric car today:
If you are looking for a second car, for city usage and in one single trip you will never cross 60% of the claimed vehicle limit, please consider the electric option. For example, for the E2O, the claimed limit is 120 km. I assume the real life limit is close to 95 km. So if my usage in the city is limited to 50 to 60 kms, it’s a very suitable option. However you have to plan your trips because you just cannot take off without checking the distance to empty. Also if you are doing a trip to a place which is say 70 kms one side, you will have to plan for charging before starting your return journey.

For example, from my home in Whitefield, if I had to drive to Bangalore Airport which was 50 km one side, I would have to arrange for charging at KIAL before starting my return journey. If I don’t, I will be stuck midway. Even a 30 to 50 min charging should give you enough buffer. Charging stations were set up at the airport. However, mostly I found taxis occupying those slots. We need more dedicated electric car parking slots at KIAL.

Also if you do get stuck somewhere, Mahindra provides Roadside Assistance and they will come and tow your vehicle immediately to the nearest charging point. This RSA service was free for the 3 years only. This is highly recommended that you opt for 5 years or the maximum possible option. You will soon learn about my story with Mahindra RSA in the next section.

Another use case, I had an office colleague who had the same car as mine. He had to travel everyday to office in his E2O and in the evening take his daughter to her dance classes. So in a day, he had 50 km of driving - charge in the night and then ready again next morning. He used to love the car and I felt it’s a very fitting case for him to drive E2O. He had his regular Creta petrol for weekends and Mysore drives etc. But then the question that everyone would ask, "can this not be your primary car?" Hmm. For me the answer is clear "No" for the E2O. Sure I would give this car to my parents to drive and keep, especially due to the low maintenance and cost effective travel, but for me, I need proper highway cruiser for weekend trips.

Well there is a fellow BHPian who had taken his Hyundai Kona to Mahabalipuram.

The economics of an electric car:
Well there are many aspects of cost of ownership for any car. The acquisition cost, regular maintenance cost and then cost of selling at the end of your experience. I have already explained above the acquisition cost. Let’s talk about maintenance cost now. Unlike ICE cars, there are not many moving parts in the car except may be the Electric Motor, Lithium Ion Battery packs and the battery management system. Expenditure on regular servicing is less than what you will spend on an equivalent ICE car. However, to be honest I had the car under lease. So, all bills were paid by the leasing vendor. Other than that, there was no regular fuel bills as well, which you will cherish. I drove in total of 12,000 km in 44 months.

Issues I faced:
1. Accelerator pedal issue – So, Mahindra uses actually an electric switch which acts as the accelerator. It's not really like the ones you have in regular cars, which are sprint based. Once this accelerator sensor became loose, the car thought that the accelerator pedal was depressed and it would not start unless I pulled the accelerator from behind by slipping my foot below and pulling the pedal up. When I complained, the service folks changed the switch and it was fine.

2. There was a minor leak of rain water from the central cabin lights panel. Complained and got it fixed.

3. Once my left door stopped locking. Even though it was shut properly, the sensor was showing as not locked. Due to this even the central locking mechanism was not able to lock the car completely. Raised the issue with the Mahindra service team. They requested for a fresh sensor from the factory and it took 15 days to come. I had to wait for it, but they fixed it eventually.

4. In the third year of ownership, one day I had taken off from office. I dropped my wife at her office and was coming back with my son.
I remember that the remaining charge was well around 28%, but suddenly the car went into limp mode and stopped in the middle of the road. It started showing low battery, immediately recharge. Nearest charging points were at my office and home. The car was exactly in the middle of these. Office was 2 km with a U Turn. Home was 1.5 kms. I thought of pushing, but with my 4 year old son alone, it was not a 1 person job. Besides, the car weighed a lot due to the battery.

Called up Mahindra RSA. They sent their tow-truck within 45 minutes and it dropped me to my office. I put the car for charging and all was good after that. This was the first incident of range anxiety. After this I started keeping a close watch and would mandatorily charge as soon as it came to 40%. Later, on enquiry, the service team mentioned that since there was more than 4 days from the previous charge, the battery shut down to protect itself. My point is there has to be an advance warning not an immediate shutdown.

5. During January 2020, one day I was at Sarjapur and coming back home. Due to an emergency I had to travel more than I had planned and battery was already at 20% when I started. I shut down everything, drove slowly, just wanted to get home somehow. Then the inevitable happened. At Marathalli crossing, on Outer Ring Road, in the middle of a busy road, suddenly the car stopped, blocking other cars behind. It was very embarrassing. Again, only me and my son in the car. Called Mahindra RSA and they informed me that the free coverage had ended and I would have to pay now. I agreed and they promised to send a tow vehicle shortly. I had to call my father for help who was nearest to that location. Got help from some people closeby to move the vehicle at least to the road side to not block anyone. This was again an embarrassing situation and frankly speaking, I think me and my wife started growing a bit of skeptical of the car.

6. There was a small issue with the steering being a size too big for my liking. It obstructed the view of the driver. However, the steering was light and easy to maneuver.

7. Another irritating thing was when you would switch on the AC for the first time, it would always go straight to 3 / 4 to start cooling at high. I would always have to lower it back to 1. This often lead to the driver looking away from the road.

I loved my E2O but... – How did the story end ?
My lease was ending in April 2020 and I had to decide either to take over the car or to hand it over back to the leasing company. Then came the lockdown and every car shop and showroom was closed. I had spoken to a few people who were interested in buying the E2O, but due to the lockdown, no one was able to come over to see it and this could not be done online.

Meanwhile, me and my wife discussed multiple times whether we can keep the car and take it over permanently. However, due to the incidents mentioned previously I was a bit worried. In the interest of not taking a gamble, we decided to let it go and get another car. Perhaps a petrol AMT / automatic. Last I heard, my car was sold to another gentleman who ran a personal business and would frequently need to travel inside the city daily for about 20 odd km. I wish him happiness with the car.

The electric car scene today –
I strongly feel that for electric cars to succeed, they have to present a good case for the end customer in terms of overall cost of ownership. Currently, all car that are there in the market are priced at points which don’t make them good value for money propositions for end customers. Now imagine at Rs. 6 lakhs buying an electric vs a petrol car. I think if you drive a lot - may be around 50k km, then it makes some sense.

But after the initial release of E2O and then E2O 4 door version, Mahindra only had one other electric car which was the Electric Verito. This is loved by the taxi drivers who use it for office pickups and drops. I have sat in one such Taxi with 40k km on the odometer. You will see them quite often being used by Lithium Company for corporate hires. Due to the taxi image, I think regular home consumers stay away from this.

The stringent safety requirements in terms of airbags and crash ratings in India meant that the E2O family had to be discontinued. Then came Tata with their Electric Tigor. It was also offered with a 140 km range, but initially only for fleet purchase. I have never seen a privately owned electric Tigor yet in Bangalore, but the last I heard, it's open for private purchase now. Both, the Verito and the Tigor are priced around Rs. 12 Lakhs ex-Bangalore.

Then came the new age electrics - Tata Nexon Electric with Ziptron technology. They have decent range and at Rs. 15 Lakhs ex-showroom Bangalore, it’s a nice option. Let’s wait for an ownership review from other Bhpians. At the higher end of the spectrum, you have the MG ZS EV at Rs. 19 Lakhs and Rs. 21 Lakhs and the last option is the Hyundai Kona at Rs. 25 Lakhs. The Kona also has the highest claimed range of around 400+ km.

Closing points:
Will I buy another electric car again? Yes, absolutely. I will not buy the Kona at Rs. 25 Lakhs even if I can afford it. However, I would be interested in a regular city car (like a Hyundai Nios electric or a Tata Altroz electric) at a price close to Rs. 12 Lakhs and not more.

I wish there were PHEVs (Plug In Electric Vehicles) available in India. They will be an awesome idea and a ideal solution to range anxiety and a 2 car problem. As an example, Jeep Compass teased a PHEV outside India with a electric only range of 50 Km combined with a petrol 1.4L motor with 4X4 (or as Jeep calls it 4XE) configuration. I don’t mind even paying 35L for that. It will be awesome and I will not need two cars for daily use vs Weekend use.

Lastly, all my friends who own E2Os love their cars. They would simple want to keep them for long term.

Stay safe everyone and happy motoring.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the EV Section. Thanks for sharing!

[V.Narayan]

Thank you for sharing the E20 experience with all the practical bits and writing your thread with a balanced perspective. I am a potential future EV buyer and watch all threads that can give me more information. I suppose if the practical range had been say ~250 kms instead of ~75 kms you may not have faced the 'out of electric juice' moments you did.

One question - you say the charging time was 6.5 hours from 10% to 100%. Did you have to rush down to the car when the 6.5 hours got over and switch off the plug or would the internal mechanism/electronics switch off the charging automatically and safely. If I buy an EV my preferred charging time would be at night while I sleep. I've installed a 15 amp socket at my parking spots in the building basement. I would hate to have to rush down at 3:00AM in my pyjamas to switch off the plug. Any clarification would be gratefully received.

Welcome to Team BHP. You have opened your score with a six.

[swarnava.ch]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

One question - you say the charging time was 6.5 hours from 10% to 100%. Did you have to rush down to the car when the 6.5 hours got over and switch off the plug or would the internal mechanism/electronics switch off the charging automatically and safely.

Thank you sir for your kind encouragement. Actually you are correct on the chargiing behaviour, you will not have to get up in the middle of the night.
SO what happens is that there is an intelligent charging mechanism employed by Mahindra, you can leave the charger connected overnight and when its fully charged, it will automatically shut down.

ALso there is a tricle charging mechanism where if you are leaving for 2 weeks vaccation suppose, you can leave the car connected to your socket. whenever the car discharges to a certain minimum level, it will recharge and then stop. So the car is pretty intellegent in this front.

[Aditya]

Nice review of what is a pretty handy city runabout. It surely helped clear a lot of doubts that I had about electric car ownership. One thing that I learnt was that just like I do with my smartphone, never venture too far in an electric car without full charge. I would never want to be stranded in the middle of a busy road at anytime just because the car runs out of juice.

The e2o was the first Indian electric car that looked like a car. It's a pity that the overall price of the car was still high compared to similar sized cars that ran on conventional fuel. The government should have subsidised the car heavily of they wanted it to sell.

[swarnava.ch]

Thanks Aditya,
You are absolutely right, planning is the key here.
Let me give you a real life example from Mumbai
Average working couple living in Mumbai suburbs – lets say Mira road.
Within Mumbai your daily drive is up to 30 kms one side.
Occasional visit to friends and relatives to Pune (173 Kms), Weekend vacations to Lonavala / Khandala (109 Kms)
I learned that there is a Charging station just before the Mumbai Pune Expressway starting point.
Please see the Video on

Youtube

from a group in Mumbai.

Just a last point to add, Things we need for electric cars to be successful:
- Proper compact cars in the range of 8 Lakhs to 12 Lakhs which would make them more reachable for mass market
- Driving ranges of minimum 250 kms in city and for the mile munchers at around 450 kms
- Acceptable charging time on standard 15 Amps socket for emergency usage
- Availability of Public charging facilities including Malls, Private Offices, Government Buildings, Pay and Use charging facilities at Petrol Pumps, Railway stations, Airports etc.
- Dedicated Parking facilities for Electric Cars at Public places

[frewper]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

I am a potential future EV buyer and watch all threads that can give me more information. I suppose if the practical range had been say ~250 kms instead of ~75 kms you may not have faced the 'out of electric juice' moments you did.

One question - .

Dear Sir, if you prefer buying an EV, then i would strongly suggest you watch some videos from the youtube channel by Bjorn.
https://www.youtube.com/user/bjornnyland/videos


You should watch the older sets of videos which are more than 5 years old, because they typically tend to answer the EV related questions.

You can start with this video which is from 2013, and then go upwards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIUwLv5yTsU

Videos are long but are very informative. Some of them can be skipped.
There are also reviews on the Hyundai Kona, which at present is a very good electric car available in India.

Looking forward to a detailed EV review just like the Lexus

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by frewper

Dear Sir, if you prefer buying an EV, then i would strongly suggest you watch some videos from the Youtube channel by Bjorn.

You should watch the older sets of videos which are more than 5 years old, because they typically tend to answer the EV related questions.

I sincerely appreciate your helpfulness. This is a very useful tip. Thanks.

[petrolHead_1609]

Hello Swarnava,

I am so sad I got here 2 days late. I was eagerly waiting for this since your first post.
Excellent writing. Pretty detailed one.
Never knew stuff mahindra did with e2o, the connected car bits which you shared, perhaps they needed to advertise better. My views towards e2o and EVs as whole have grown a little more towards positive side.
In 4 years of ownership, just 2 stranded incidents is a good reliability bit for an early adopter, that too not happened on high battery charge.
To top it, never ever knew about charging points in malls, service centers or even the one you mentioned at Mumbai Pune e-way. I hope with a little more adoption, mahindra and Tata put up fast chargers in their service stations, imagine the drop in range anxiety.
Happy to see your kid loved tucking into those rear seats. Glad to hear that some of your friends find it so good that they continued with it.
It was overall a very unique and happy experience to own one it seems.
In another thread, I had mentioned I'd happily own an EV without worrying about charging stations as they fit pretty well for city driving and considering the worst case range in sports mode of nexon being 130 kms. you've rather made me feel optimistic enough with the array of charging stations possibility, frankly speaking till date I just thought there are zero charging stations out there.
I'm just waiting for a little competition in EV space, a facelift cycle of the products (to let them overcome initial niggles) and me shifting to my own place (I'm a bachelor so I share the apartment with a friend but I've already booked a unit and will get it in a year, which was supposed to be ready by year end, then this pandemic came )

On a different note, has your NIOS arrived? Do share with us about your acquisition, as it's going be nothing like a normal purchase.

[swarnava.ch]

Originally Posted by petrolHead_1609

I am so sad I got here 2 days late. I was eagerly waiting for this since your first post.

Thanks for your kind words, I forgot to share with you the link.
Its Great to see fellow Bhpians being interested in EVs.
I personally fell things are only improving and there are a few new entries that are on the horizon like:
Tata Altroz EV - Showcased already this year, tentative to release Q3 / Q4 2020.
Mahindra eKUV - Showcased already this year, tentative to release Q3 / Q4 2020.
Then there are Mahindra eXUV300 - which was planned, not sure when it will be released.
So a lot more option in the future are on the horizon.

All the best for your move in to your new Home.

My NIOS is a completely different story. There is no visibility from the SA. He had earlier mentioned First week of July now he says due to complete lockdown in Chennai, there may be further impact. Almost all other dealers are also saying the same. I have been offered a March Manufactured car available with the dealer and another which was manufactured in March but arrived from Factory in June 2nd week.
However I want to stay clear of 4 months old car lying idle in a stockyard. You never know what all things could go wrong.

Happy Motoring

[car love]

My co-sister had a Reva (1st generation) for more than 5 years. She was happy with it primarily because of its small size and ease of driving especially on our very crowded roads. She eventually sold it recently due to various issues and went for a Hyundai AMT petrol. IMO, India is not ready for electric and also it is not a viable proposition. The issues she faced apart from the well documented range and charging point infra issues were
1) Not as cheap as advertised. Her dad was at times annoyed with the electricity bills reaching 4k and 5k a month due to charging of her car while the average rates without the car was around 2k or less per month.
2) At the end of 3.5-4 year mark basically the whole battery system has to be replaced and this was a massive cost.
3) Power outages being common in our country many a times she had to take alternate modes of transport because a power outage did not charge the car enough.
Adding to this i believe that even if 20% of the current car users switched to electric, the Indian electricity grid will collapse.

[swarnava.ch]

Originally Posted by car love

At the end of 3.5-4 year mark basically the whole battery system has to be replaced and this was a massive cost.

Thanks carlove for your feedback. I agree with your point 1 and 3 that these are impediments however one point no 2, I have something to share which I missed in the main review.

Actually I had this exact same query that How much the battery will cost if needs to be replaced ?

During purcahse, I was talking to one of the Engineers from the Plant who had come for feedback gathering.

What he told me was this -
1. The battery technology in E2O was an improvement over first gen iReva.
I dont remember all the details, what are the improvements like Li-Ion, fully sealed etc. etc.
2. Every 4-5 years, cost of battery reduces by 20% due to technology improvements.
3. Mahindra provides 5 years warranty for the battery alone
4. I will get some cashback/discount due to old battery return

So a quick back of the hand calculation showed that after 4 to 5 years with my kind of usage, even if I had to change the full battery, I would spend may be 1.5 lakhs and the car would be as good as new.

If you see now the new Tata Nexon comes with 8 Years warranty on the battery which are completely sealed liquid cooled modules. Offcourse as the capacity is higher, I am sure their replacement cost will be higher as well.
But its a good reassurance with the warranty.

[majumon]

Thanks or bringing up a nice thread. Very detailed and well written one.I have been very fascinated about the old revai car and had decided then that I would definitely get one more lenient towards the environment factor. Was lucky to pick up one from a colleague of mine in Sep'15 and am enjoying every bit of the car. Car is being used for all local errands mostly by wife to pick and drop kids from school and of course weekend I don't let go of the wheels. Luckily I have found a very senior and passionate person who loves to take care of this cute little baby and I am so reassured of keeping and running the car with great confidence and pleasure. He has all the knowhow and sufficient parts to run a Reva without any hassle.

[swarnava.ch]

Originally Posted by majumon

Was lucky to pick up one from a colleague of mine in Sep'15 and am enjoying every bit of the car.

Thank you for sharing your experience. Its always nice to meet fellow enthusiasts of electric vehicles. I have a few friends with their original iReva and they are really happy with it. They have no thoughts of replacements and would like to run it till the end of life for the car.

I would request you to also share your experience as a thread. We must share our feedback and help other fellow community members to overcome the initial inhibitions and look favourably on these options. I feel it’s only via adoption, will the economics work out eventually.