[MorePower]

Originally Posted by Aditya

The Government of India is looking to offer subsidies on electric cars from April 2014, under the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan. Will it help boost sales of electric vehicles?

The first of the many steps the government needs to take to encourage cleaner fuel systems. Just hope they don't stop at this and move forward by improving the infrastructure to make these electric vehicles more practical to use. Everytime I drive into Mumbai, can see the low hanging smog all over the city. Morning walkers are warned against venturing out due to thick smog and practicing their breathing exercises. If this is not a wake up call for us, not sure what is.

[Contrapunto]

Subsidy is a very fickle mistress. It will provide good relief, but I hope the industry aggressively pitches in to educate the consumers as well as drive down costs of key components. Ultimately, unless these cars prove to be reliable as well as economic, they wont sell in volumes. Subsidies can vanish with changing political dispensations sooner than you can say CO2

[kamyfc]

I really do hope the subsidies kick in.
This will ensure Foreign Auto makers enter the EV market here in India.

BMW i3, Nissan Leaf, Mitsubishi iMeiv are all EV's waiting to be sold here.
Once we have foreign players, we hope the likes of Tata, Maruti come in.

Consumers need choices regarding alternative means of transport and subsidies are very important globally to kick start the EV industry.

One of the first thing that needs to be done is installation of DC quick charging facilites, which would turn EV's from Commuter Vehicles to Regional Vehicles.

Lets hope we see action in the following months.

[abacusv]

I was reading this post from sometime and have been talking to E2O sales rep for few days now. I was very much convinced with all the aspect of the car except the initial cost of the car. And thanks to Rahaan for the excellent review with video. Every bit of it is perfectly given.

I came across carzonrent which rented E2O selfdriven for very reasonable cost 800/- per day excluding vat. I thought of trying this for couple of days and evaluating my need.

I travel 70KM per day and take the expressway NICE road in bangalore. This is long route no traffic quick journey path with toll. I own a scorpio and have been worried about the expenses with respect to fuel and maintenance( Scoripio needs to be serviced every 5000 KM). Started evaluating e2o on these lines.

My feedback.
1. Since I travel 70KM a day on a highway kind of road, the charge wont give you 100KM. I think the 100% 100km is with regenerating. Since there are less braking scenario and continues acceleration, for 35KM the charge came down to 48%. Cos of this I was forced to take the buzy traffic route while returning and reached 21KM with 21% charge. So highway is not a choice for this car even if the distance is less than 100KM.

2. Must charge everyday. If there is power cut or fail to charge for some reason you have no vehicle for the next day. With fuel you just fill it in couple of mins and you are ready to go.

3. Forced to use the car only where you can charge regularly.

4. Fixed parking limitation. Since it has to be charged you are forced to park at only one place what so ever. Any change in place, think of charging point too.

5. There might be situation where you need to travel back from office and immediately need to drop someone to terminals. Or may be for a shopping or some extra travel. NOT an option you dont have enough charge.

6. You are psychologically bound to charge left on the car. Its not a car where you take anywhere any time even with in your city. Your travels need to be planned and fixed. Deviation are not an option.

7. You plan to travel a day and like to park your car at the terminal overnight or couple of nights? You cant. what about charge?

I was so much looking forward to buying this car but, after using it for couple of days I could come up with more limitation than the benefit it provided. Its my opinion though but can vary from other usage point of view.

Just read @kamyfc's post and probably/hopefully DC quick charging points might solve these things.

With Rahaan's comparison on other comparable cars, I felt the money you save is not worth the effort you go throughout the ownership. Until someone disproves it.

[undead]

@abacusv -Nice observation.

Reva is not a car for everyone and impossible to be a primary car. Reva can be a secondary car for some people . Each car in india serve different purpose for every person. Hatchback for small family. MUV for medium families. Different sedans for chauffeur driven( eg: Sunny, Corolla etc)and different for self driven(eg : Vento, Fiesta etc)
Let me give some examples why Reva can be choice from my point of view.
I live in a small town which doesn't have even a traffic signal and the traffic is a normal one

1. I have seen some wealthy people in my locality having 3 to 5 cars in their home , using each car for one member of a family. Particularly i have seen one car specially for school drop and pickup purpose for their kids. I have seen small hatchbacks for that kind of purpose (like Swift, Figo etc). For them Reva might be an option to consider as they use that car only for school purposes and for nothing else. Distance to school is max 9 kms to and fro in a day as my town is smaller one.

2. I have an old Elantra CRDi and an i10 1.2 Magna. I use elantra for the highways as it is comfortable and safer. i10 for my town and nearby city driving as it is easier to drive and park. Its been 1 yr since i purchased my i10 and i have covered only 3600 kms till now. My maximum travel within my town will be 10 kms only. The nearby city is 15 kms away and i can visit that city for shopping and come back in 40 kms max. I could consider the Reva instead of i10 as my second car to go with IF it was priced lesser than the i10. I have SOLAR panels in my home and i could use it to charge it.

May be Reva could do well in small towns like mine where the traffic is less , daily runabout is low , there are many people here who use their car only during weekends or once or twice a month for nearby city for some shopping and to temples . They use their two wheelers for everyday use.

But we still couldnt find a satisfying USP factor in this Reva other than the GREEN factor. They need to reduce the initial cost and price it competitively atleast with the WagonR , so that the lower running cost with be a beneficial factor.

These are my small observations from my point of view and apologies if i am wrong.

[kamyfc]

I own the e2o and u can take a look at my ownership report in team-bhp or in the other site (pluginindia - link above)

Here's the thing abacus

If your requirement is to travel 70km every day, i would like to know your driving habits?

Are you an aggressive driver? Who likes to step on the pedal whenever you get a chance? Do you use the 'Boost' mode often?
Do you turn the AC on?

When it comes to electric cars, its all bout being optimal about the energy you are draining from the battery. The more you are in the 'High' efficient zone (u can see that on the e2o DASH) and the lesser usage of AC and 'Boost' mode would easily give you a fairly predicable range.

See everyone of us is used to the high energy density of Petrol - Pound for Pound Petrol has more high energy than the Lithium Ion Chemistry.
Sadly we only have a 10kWh battery pack in the e2o to keep the costs low. And that means we have only 100kms worth of energy (if driven in an optimal manner)

According to my 6 months of usage - if you drive in an efficient manner if you go 70 kms, the range left will be 30 km. The range prediction is fairly accurate. I never use the 'Boost' mode and only use the AC if i really need it.

Now we dont want care about these things - you just want to drive and not worry bout optimal drive etc. Sure. This car is not for you.
When u drive a Scorpio, i can easily sense your driving habits and you would want to drive like that using this car too.

Moreover 90% of people in cities don't drive 70kms a day. The national average for an urban commuter is less than 40 kms. For them this is very useful and practical vehicle.

Originally Posted by abacusv

I was reading this post from sometime and have been talking to E2O sales rep for few days now. I was very much convinced with all the aspect of the car except the initial cost of the car. And thanks to Rahaan for the excellent review with video. Every bit of it is perfectly given.

I came across carzonrent which rented E2O selfdriven for very reasonable cost 800/- per day excluding vat. I thought of trying this for couple of days and evaluating my need.

I travel 70KM per day and take the expressway NICE road in bangalore. This is long route no traffic quick journey path with toll. I own a scorpio and have been worried about the expenses with respect to fuel and maintenance( Scoripio needs to be serviced every 5000 KM). Started evaluating e2o on these lines.

My feedback.
1. Since I travel 70KM a day on a highway kind of road, the charge wont give you 100KM. I think the 100% 100km is with regenerating. Since there are less braking scenario and continues acceleration, for 35KM the charge came down to 48%. Cos of this I was forced to take the buzy traffic route while returning and reached 21KM with 21% charge. So highway is not a choice for this car even if the distance is less than 100KM.

2. Must charge everyday. If there is power cut or fail to charge for some reason you have no vehicle for the next day. With fuel you just fill it in couple of mins and you are ready to go.

3. Forced to use the car only where you can charge regularly.

4. Fixed parking limitation. Since it has to be charged you are forced to park at only one place what so ever. Any change in place, think of charging point too.

5. There might be situation where you need to travel back from office and immediately need to drop someone to terminals. Or may be for a shopping or some extra travel. NOT an option you dont have enough charge.

6. You are psychologically bound to charge left on the car. Its not a car where you take anywhere any time even with in your city. Your travels need to be planned and fixed. Deviation are not an option.

7. You plan to travel a day and like to park your car at the terminal overnight or couple of nights? You cant. what about charge?

I was so much looking forward to buying this car but, after using it for couple of days I could come up with more limitation than the benefit it provided. Its my opinion though but can vary from other usage point of view.

Just read @kamyfc's post and probably/hopefully DC quick charging points might solve these things.

With Rahaan's comparison on other comparable cars, I felt the money you save is not worth the effort you go throughout the ownership. Until someone disproves it.

[abacusv]

Originally Posted by kamyfc

I own the e2o and u can take a look at my ownership report in team-bhp or in the other site (pluginindia - link above)

Here's the thing abacus

If your requirement is to travel 70km every day, i would like to know your driving habits?

Are you an aggressive driver? Who likes to step on the pedal whenever you get a chance? Do you use the 'Boost' mode often?
Do you turn the AC on?

My observation and charge update was without boost and with A/C if not all time more often.

Originally Posted by kamyfc

According to my 6 months of usage - if you drive in an efficient manner if you go 70 kms, the range left will be 30 km. The range prediction is fairly accurate. I never use the 'Boost' mode and only use the AC if i really need it.

Now we dont want care about these things - you just want to drive and not worry bout optimal drive etc. Sure. This car is not for you.
When u drive a Scorpio, i can easily sense your driving habits and you would want to drive like that using this car too.

Moreover 90% of people in cities don't drive 70kms a day. The national average for an urban commuter is less than 40 kms. For them this is very useful and practical vehicle.

@kamyfc apologize if my review was in any way offensive to any one. Its my 2 day drive experience and my opinion alone. I was a pro REVA even before e20. Due to my distance travel I couldn't buy then. When e2o launched with 100KM a charge; I was very happy. Like I said, I found more limitations than benefits after experiencing it. The initial cost doesn't justify any thing in anyways. You pay so much for no peace. And my points are basically that. YOu pay substantial amount only to have lot of DONT's.

By the way if you are familiar with Bangalore; 70km(round trip) is not an unusual distance to travel daily. And when M&M said 100km a charge, it says with *. *In city traffic only. Not in all conditions. And that was my point.

And more over it was humble review with no intention of replacing or comparing to the power of Scoripio. Please dont judge someone by the car.

I also, agree with @undead. The cost should have at least matched i10/Astar. I was advertising the REVA to people until this experience of mine. Now I might have to undo that.

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by undead

But we still couldnt find a satisfying USP factor in this Reva other than the GREEN factor. They need to reduce the initial cost and price it competitively atleast with the WagonR , so that the lower running cost with be a beneficial factor.

We were discussing the Reva and hybrid cars in general the other day since my professor is planning to buy a new car and asked me about hybrid options. All went well until I told him the price of the car and he couldn't believe it. Having to live with so many limitations ( psychological or real) and still paying through the roof for it. How does that make sense? Going green can be done in other ways too and certainly not at the cost of limiting your freedom of movement. Hybrid cars cannot make any sort of impact unless they are priced at par with regular hatches. All this talk about technology etc till then is just fit for coffee table chit chat.
Needless to say he booked the Brio!

[kamyfc]

Sure that is your opinion on the car after 2 days using it.
I understand. And no one was offended in anyway

Let me look at the points you have raised

1) As the highway is regularly part of your commute and you need to go fast on an open stretch at high speeds. And does going at high speeds eats up charge - Well my observations after 6 months usage has been that - If you stick to 'F' mode and even go at a constant 60 kmph - The range estimation is fairly accurate.

But the main point is - You get home in 1 piece right with 21 km worth of energy left right?
You are not stranded due to lack of charge?
If even if you do get stranded - u can get 7-10 kms etc with the REVIVE feature. So there is no need for any sort of range anxiety, in your case.
70kms is doable if driven sensibly is my point.

You can even Alleviate this issue totally, if u can get a 15 AMP socket at your work place. See no big deal.

2. Power Cuts - you are worried bout an all nighter power cut?
In a year - how often does that happen?
I feel you are worrying bout an edge case here.
You can always use the Smart Phone and program it to start charging from 12AM to 4 AM.
This reason of a power cut, should not be a barrier to go for this car, right?

3. Forced to use the car only where you can charge regularly.
It takes a discipline to do it, in your case u will need to charge it daily.
I agree here.

4. Fixed parking limitation. Since it has to be charged you are forced to park at only one place what so ever. Any change in place, think of charging point too.
I agree here.

5. There might be situation where you need to travel back from office and immediately need to drop someone to terminals. Or may be for a shopping or some extra travel. NOT an option you dont have enough charge.
Again an edge case, i mean something that wont happen everyday.
You can plan for something like that right - Like charging at work?


6. You are psychologically bound to charge left on the car. Its not a car where you take anywhere any time even with in your city. Your travels need to be planned and fixed. Deviation are not an option.
I agree , it takes a different mentality while using an electric car.

7. You plan to travel a day and like to park your car at the terminal overnight or couple of nights? You cant. what about charge?
Bangalore airport has a charge point! You it!
Well am kidding! How often do u travel?
Can u take a cab that day?

The point is i do agree its a mentality and mindset change that needs to occur when u use an electric car. It takes a certain discipline to use this and it takes time getting used to.

Apart from these concerns, how do u like the car?
Do you like the drive experience?

Originally Posted by abacusv

1. Since I travel 70KM a day on a highway kind of road, the charge wont give you 100KM. I think the 100% 100km is with regenerating. Since there are less braking scenario and continues acceleration, for 35KM the charge came down to 48%. Cos of this I was forced to take the buzy traffic route while returning and reached 21KM with 21% charge. So highway is not a choice for this car even if the distance is less than 100KM.

2. Must charge everyday. If there is power cut or fail to charge for some reason you have no vehicle for the next day. With fuel you just fill it in couple of mins and you are ready to go.

3. Forced to use the car only where you can charge regularly.

4. Fixed parking limitation. Since it has to be charged you are forced to park at only one place what so ever. Any change in place, think of charging point too.

5. There might be situation where you need to travel back from office and immediately need to drop someone to terminals. Or may be for a shopping or some extra travel. NOT an option you dont have enough charge.

6. You are psychologically bound to charge left on the car. Its not a car where you take anywhere any time even with in your city. Your travels need to be planned and fixed. Deviation are not an option.

7. You plan to travel a day and like to park your car at the terminal overnight or couple of nights? You cant. what about charge?

[abacusv]

Originally Posted by kamyfc

o. Apart from these concerns, how do u like the car? Do you like the drive experience?

1. There is lot of tyre noise on highway even with 40km speed. Other wise smooth and silent.
2. Manual steering is little disappointing especially for ladies.
3. I happen to bump while taking reverse. I was not used to reverse cam and lack of visibility caused it. Good thing is no dent. Sure other cars would have had a huge dent. This one left with just a scratch.

For Eco friendly concept I admire this little one but it still cuts your pocket. I think reduction in cost will definitely makes this car must have.

[abacusv]

@kamyfc I was reading this post of yours http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post3287483


Would you mind sharing your feedback on 1/2 RS/KM is it really this?

Thanks in advance

[kamyfc]

Originally Posted by abacusv

@kamyfc I was reading this post of yours http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post3287483


Would you mind sharing your feedback on 1/2 RS/KM is it really this?

Thanks in advance

Hi yes, over the past 5 months, my average spending is Rs 500 for 1000 kms i drive per month.

I have stopped updating the other thread. As i dont have time to update in multiple sites.

[Kernelmann]

My experience with the e2o at Hyderabad. I had requested for a Fun drive online, and was contacted by a Mahindra representative who explained the different aspects of the e20 in great detail, including the cashback scheme wherein Mahindra would credit Re.1 for every 2 kms driven. Additionally, the warranty on the battery pack is now 5 years, which is a bit more reassuring. However, things went a bit downhill when I visited the dealership for the test drive.

The sales reps had hardly a clue about what the e2o could do, other than drive on batteries. They were terrible ill informed and one of them even suggested that I consider the Quanto, a 'lifestlye' car for a lot less. And that brings us to the biggest shocker, the price tag. 8,93,000 on-road. Phew! I had gone in there prepared for 7 lacs, as that's the number I had heard floating around. The sales rep did hint that there might be some discounts to be had, but the whole experience was a damp squib.

I think Mahindra deserves kudos for their vision for EVs and are on the right track with their REVA acquisition. However, their go-to-market strategy needs more thought. And of course, the Government must step into make the car more affordable.

[YellowEye]

I have seen a brand new e2o parked at an apartment complex and took my time to look at it from all angles.

Honestly here in Kolkata I wouldn't mind buying one except for the crazy price tag. Currently with short distances every day and a lot of stop and go traffic the swift of my in laws has a horrible milage of around 8-9.

For them (owning a garage with a plug point) it would a very good solution.

But I hope Mahindra either seriously lowers the price tag to 5 Lakh ex showroom or at least builds a bigger 4 door version.

Otherwise honestly considering it is also an automatic (like all electric cars) it truly believe it is a fantastic car for the city.

get the subsidies in place and lower the price to 5 Lakh.

[harikrishnanm]

Hi,

I went in to TD the E2O some time ago. The sales chap who was explaining the car to me asked me to be careful with the car since it did not have an engine. Apparently he had accidentally pressed the accelerator without knowing the car was 'on'. The car moved forward and hit a Zen that belonged to another prospective customer. Here is the picture of the Zen after the accident.



And here is what happened to the E20


The E20 may be small, but is tough alright.