Mahindra Reva to launch more electric vehicles

After buying a 55% stake in India’s largest electric car manufacturer Reva, Mahindra Reva has announced to launch more electric cars under the brand. The market for electric car is increasing exponentially around the world. In order to capture a larger stake in the EV segment, Mahindra Reva would manufacture more products.

India’s leading business daily, The Economic Times reported that, Mahindra Reva, COO, Mr R Chandramouli, said, “For the moment, the focus is on M&M’s four wheelers and not the two-wheelers. We are exploring synergies with M&M since we can access that huge supplier base of theirs. We are discussing which platforms of the existing portfolio can be converted and a decision is expected to be taken by the end of this fiscal.”

Upgraded version of their first EV Reva, Reva-i was launched yesterday in 6 Indian cities. Strangely, Reva-i is not one of the 6 cities, on which Mr Chandramouli said, “To enter Mumbai, we need public infrastructure for charging the car battery. In Mumbai, we believe that few people have their own parking hence they park on the road. So we need to do something different for Mumbai.”

The reason EV manufacturers are not able to capture larger market is the unavailability of charging points around the city. The only place currently available where an EV owner can charge his/her car is at their home. Government needs to set up charging points throughout the city if they want more people to buy EV’s.

Mr Rakesh Sen, GM, Mahindra Reva added, “In Delhi, we have tied up with private sector power utility, BSES, an Anil Ambani group company, to use its charging ports. These ports are charging points where e-vehicles can come and charge their batteries. BSES, through its two distribution companies, Rajdhani and Yamuna, has 60 ports, which are expected to rise to 100 soon. But for an entry into Mumbai, we will need not just government but also corporate support. We can install charging points in the parking areas of corporates. The government can offer this as public infrastructure.”