India's first electric car rolls out

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">bangalore: for india''s first mass-produced electric car which rolled out in 2001, expectations could be anything but high. a cautious reva electric car company (recc), a joint venture with aevt, an affiliate of amerigon inc, had set conservative targets and crossed its fingers. today, buoyed by the acceptance the car has received, first-mover recc is on to variants and a faster expansion into other cities than earlier envisaged.has the day of the electric vehicle arrived? <span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">chetan maini</span>, md, recc, says in an interview that it''s not been an easy ride and more players are needed to fuel this category: <span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">how did the reva electric car project begin and are you encouraged by the market response?</span> this project was my baby and we started on it in 1994. the first prototype was displayed in bangalore in 1996-97 and everyone thought we will launch it right away. but people forget that it takes between five to seven years to build a brand new car. for us, it was doubly difficult because this is a 92 per cent localised car and we were the first in this space. after the long wait, it now feels good to see so many revas on bangalore''s roads (there are 150 on the road currently). in fact, we have been getting so many enquiries from outside the city that we will open 15-20 dealerships in other states by the year-end with some of them scheduled in a few months time, much before than earlier thought. we are also ramping up production from 50 cars a month now to 150 in three months and 200 by the year-end. a deluxe reva variant will also be up for sale after the budget is announced. <span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">what were the challenges you faced? was it difficult for consumers to accept the concept?</span> consumer acceptance was definitely one of the biggest hurdles we faced. also, the fact that the car was priced so much higher than we had planned since the expected excise duty cuts did not happen in the previous budget. now that we have achieved acceptance from the consumer point-of-view, what remains is only pricing. another big challenge was building a dedicated team, including r&d. convincing financial institutions who had seen previous failures in the electric vehicle (ev) industry, that reva was a viable product was also difficult. <span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">what''s happening on the exports front?</span> there is a big demand for evs in the developed countries due to environmental concerns. we will be starting exports with nepal this month but europe, especially the uk, is going to be our biggest market. we have targeted 15 per cent of reva''s production to constitute exports. the certification process in europe is expansive and we hope it will be through in six months. once the certification comes through we will export reva with a few minor modifications to suit the importing country''s needs. <span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">does the ev industry in india have a future? do you see more people opting for an ev as more vehicles enter the market?</span> it is very heartening to see that many big auto companies like mahindra & mahindra which recently launched an electric 3-wheeler bijlee, are entering this segment. what needs to be done first is to bring in the necessary excise and other duty cuts to give these non-polluting vehicles a price advantage. the ev industry in india is now a mere 500 vehicles (all makes inclusive) but since many companies have entered the fray now, in three to five years, we can see 100 per cent growth in volumes per annum. for indian road requirements and given the pollution in our cities, evs are ideal. their low operating costs are also a plus. our feedback shows that for most buyers, reva is their second car, which they prefer to use in-city, while their regular vehicle is used for long-distance trips. </div> </div>