When the very first Reva arrived, it looked more like a golf cart with a bodyshell. Apart from seating two people up front, you could squeeze in perhaps your dog at the two jump seats behind and maybe even your kid who has been misbehaving. Throw in a 65 kph top speed and a range of 60-80 kms, the diminutive Reva Electric was great for going on shopping errands and other such little trips.
What it didn’t do comfortably was to feel and drive like a real car as a big bus looming on your rear view mirror was more than enough to hustle you around and you couldn’t even get out of the way if the going was uphill due to the low power output. Thankfully a solution to most of these issues will arrive in the form of the next generation Reva, the Reva NXR, which can actually seat four adults, move them at a top speed of 104 kph and manage to go 160 kilometers before running out of juice.
This car will see a launch in 2012 and once that happens, India will get it’s homegrown electric car that is actually as practical as any other small car for use inside the city. We hope that Mahindra Reva pass on all the cost benefits that the 2011 Union Budget had proffered upon electric vehicles to make the Reva NXR an attractive proposition for electric car buyers. And they better do it quickly, before other car manufacturers like Tata and GM India bring in their own electric offerings.
source: TheEconomicTimes
