Mahindra e2o Electric Vehicle Launching in March 2013

India's leading SUV maker, Mahindra & Mahindra owned electric car brand Reva has now finally decided to launch the much awaited e2o (ee- two-oh) in March despite the 2013 Union budget didn't extend subsidy on electric vehicles, terminated last fiscal. The company already sells REVAi two seater, the E2O will be the company's first four seater car, which will compete against many budget hatches available in India.

The company is disappointed seeing the 2013 Union budget seeing no intervention for electric cars from the government. Talking to Economic Times, Chetan Maini, Chief of Technology and Strategy at Mahindra Reva said, "On one hand the government is talking about energy security and tackling urban pollution, and the medium to resolve these issues through electric cars was not supported. While the electric vehicle policy was announced a few months back, we are hoping for it to be implemented quickly, so that the much needed subsidy is extended for the segment to grow,"

He further added, "The subsidy would have been welcome, but now we will have to look at our internal strategy to launch the product, with the hope that the policy will be soon implemented." So we believe that it will be a tough call for Mahindra to price the vehicle quite competitive against the likes of Maruti Suzuki Swift, Hyundai i20, Volkswagen Polo and others. Also if the prices will be higher at a time when the electric vehicles are still not very popular in the country, it will be so challenging for the company to meet its target of selling around 15-20% of the total sales numbers of the aforementioned competitors.

The Electric car e2o is the first product that has been assembled at the company's newly started eco-friendly facility based out of Bangalore. The vehicle derives it power from a 48-Volt, 29kW electric motor that belts out a maximum of 39.4bhp, promising to return an impressive fuel economy. There might an other costlier variant as well to be powered by a lead-acid battery, however the company hasn't commented anything on the same.

The e2o is expected to have a top speed of 100kmph, and despite being higher in cost initially, the cost of running on electric vehicle is not more than 50-60 paisa per/km as against 3-4/km on diesel and 5-6/km on petrol. This is all what we have for now, stay tuned to CarDekho for all the latest updates on the upcoming e2o. Cheers!

Source: ET

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