Mahindra Reva and Vodafone Join hands to Enhance e2o functionality

Mahindra Reva and Vodafone Business Services have announced a strategic partnership to enhance the user experience in the company's recently launched e2o electric and upcoming electric cars. This strategic partnership enables users to access and operate number of functions on the Mahindra Reva e2o via an application on their smartphones or tablets. The application will be available across all the platforms in the market such as Android, iOS and Blackberry.

Using this technology on any smartphones or any connected computer, e2o users with Vodafone's connectivity can access following services:

. Know the amount of charge battery left in car and how far user can travel with the available charge.
. Before entering in the car, user can remotely control its air-conditioning and set schedules to pre-heat or pre-cool.
. Lock or unlock the car doors.
. User can find the nearest charging stations.
. Car owner will automatically receive alerts on various things with the car such as a disruption in charging due to power cuts, safety related reminders such as a door being left unlocked or a parking brake not applied.
. If car ends up with battery, user can get an emergency boost charge with a command on the smartphone to go an extra 8-10kms

This tie-up among an auto-giant and a telecom service provider has been the first of its kind in the country, and it is specifically made for the e2o. The e2o uses Vodafone's m2m services to utilize aforementioned services and provides a comprehensive and exciting experience including many other useful and innovative features. 

Speaking on the association, Chetan Maini, Chief of Strategy & Technology, Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles Pvt. Ltd. said, “The e2o is the first and only Indian car, and among the few worldwide, to have telematics based features that enable ‘anytime, anywhere connectivity’ between our customers and their cars. The high performance telematics solution developed by Mahindra Reva for the e2o offers one of the richest set of telematics enabled features offered on any car in the world today. We are pleased to partner with Vodafone as our exclusive Machine-to-Machine mobile connectivity solution provider. Going forward, connected car technologies will make a difference to convenience and safety, thereby making a positive impact on the way people commute and interact with their cars. We are sure that our association with Vodafone will provide an even greater value proposition to our customers and enable new innovations in this exciting space in the future”.

The car was launched around three weeks back and several test runs have been taken. The company is yet to start absolute selling of the e2o. However, company has set up a network of charging stations in Bangalore. Mumbai itself has 15 outlets and more will be added. The company hopes to sell around 6,000 units of e2o first year in India and will export the car to the UK and Norway by 2014.

Read More on : Reva E2O 2013