Wow! So many questions. I shall do my best to answer them. Batteries and Servicing
I've had the car for over 2½ years and driven around 10,000km. Other than normal servicing, I have had to replace two batteries, which I have done myself - it's not a difficult job and the owners club has all the information on how to do it.
The batteries are lead acid traction batteries, which requires topping up with water a couple of times each month. Topping up the water is easy - there is a pipe that you plug into the car from a bottle of distilled water and a guage that shows when the batteries are full. The whole process takes about a minute.
Range does decrease as the batteries get older, but it does depend on how you use the car. I know several people who travel 50km a day with their cars on older batteries and because they run the car from a full battery to an almost flat battery, the range remains good.
I, on the other hand, rarely run my car from a full battery to an almost flat battery - I drive to work and back which is a round trip of 22km - and then put the car on charge. As a result, the charge indicator on the car rarely drops below 60%. However, because of the way I drive the car - charging it up whilst the batteries are still relatively full - the range of the car itself has dropped, giving me a range of around 30km. That suits me fine, because I never need to go further than that.
That said, it is very cold here in the UK at the moment - the temperature has been around 0°c for the past two months - and that also badly affects the range. Price
Here in the UK, the Reva costs £8,000 to buy - I think that is around 5.5 lakh. In comparison, when the Tata Indica V2 was available in the UK a few years ago, prices ranged from £6,500 - £8,500.
The pricing is expensive because the car is not mass produced. Yes, it's built on a good production line, but it is a specialist car and isn't built in the same volumes as other cars. That makes the car expensive to build. In addition, you're buying all your fuel for the car at the same time as you're buying the car - batteries are expensive and it's like buying all your fuel up-front when you buy your car.
I agree with all the comments about the price though - the car will never become a mainstream product until the price comes down. Future Battery Technology
GTO makes some very good points about the car. Battery technology is improving all the time, but I'm not so sure what is meant by 'disruptive'? Since its launch in 2001, there have been different battery packs available for the Reva and as the technology improves, so new batteries come along. Here in Europe, the lithium-ion version of the Reva has already been announced and several owners are talking about upgrading their cars.
With regards to new battery technology by the way, there is a lot of development going into lithium-ion battery technology for electric cars. However, it should not automatically be assumed that lithium-ion batteries are therefore the only battery worth having. In the UK, a new commercial electric van is being launched in two months time that will use lead acid batteries, whilst the next generation Toyota Prius is going to have NiMH batteries. Lithium-ion batteries change the problems rather than removes them, and they are frighteningly expensive - around ten times the cost of lead acid batteries. I think we'll continue to see lead acid batteries in electric cars for quite some time to come. Restricted Highway Capabilities
With regards to restricted highway capabilities, the Reva i is significantly better than my car in this regard. With a top speed of 80km/h, the Reva i would be fine for most main roads in the UK, although it probably wouldn't be a good idea to travel on Britain's motorway network for too far in one. That said, I know some people do! Charging Facilities
Most Reva owners in Europe own a Reva as a second vehicle, and most live in houses where they can easily charge up their cars.
However, a lot more people would have bought Reva's if they could charge their cars up at their apartments and have been unable to arrange this. One clever way to get around this problem is to make an arrangement with a local business to park and charge your car at their site (offices, shop or whatever) out of hours. From the businesses point of view, it means there is a presence when the business is closed, thereby improving security, and secondly it shows they are 'doing their bit for the environment'.
Here in the UK, many councils and a few independent car park operators have installed charging points for electric cars. Some of these are charging points in large car parks, others are charging posts that are fitted at the side of the road.
Local businesses, too, are being encouraged to install charging points.
What we have done in the UK is get a lot of electric car owners to work together to get new electric charging points set up: if only one person is asking a local government department for a charging point, it is easy for the request to be turned down. If fifty people are asking for a charging point, it is more likely that something will happen. |