When Mahindra and Mahindra showcased Mahindra Verito Electric at Auto Expo 2012 in New Delhi India, it was not just a marketing move, they actually showcased their future strategies when it comes to launch of Electric cars in India. Soon after M&M acquired the Reva electric car company and it became Mahindra Reva, the growth & R&D activities have accelerated and M&M is also testing various electric powertrains on its existing lineup.
Founder of Reva electric company and CTO at Mahindra Reva presently, Chetan Maini revealed to media that Mahindra Verito Electric sedan will be launched by 2014 in India as the market for electric car is gradually getting better and there is practically no car in this segment in India as of now. There are small cars by Reva which are the only pure electric vehicles in India and their sales too are not very high. But gradually with the whole world gradually shifting to alternatives of fossil fuels (petrol and diesel), Hybrid and electric cars are becoming more and more popular. Not only the popularity is increasing, but with time, the technology and battery costs are gradually on a decrease.
Mahindra Verito is not the only car which will go electric, Mahindra Reva has also tested the electric power trains on their popular utility vehicles Bolero and Scorpio and found out that it is quite feasible to make electric versions of these cars. Also they have tested their electric technology on small pick-up trucks like Maxximo and Geo which are used for commercial purposes. Maini believes that it will take some time before there is enough infrastructure like easy availability of public charging stations after which these electric vehicles can be rolled out on mass scale.
Although in India, most of our electricity is produced using coal as fuel, but still its comparatively less polluting for the environment and going forward more and more clean electricity projects like Wind power, Hydro-power, nuclear etc. will come up and will help reduce the pollution further without affecting the cars. Also for the end users, the cost of running a car on electricity or battery turns out to be much lower than petrol or diesel.
With a proper government support for developing infrastructure for charging of EVs and some sort of tax benefits to promote the electric cars will greatly help increase the sales of clean energy vehicles and will also help cut the use of expansive and imported crude oil in India for running cars. We will keep an eye on the developments in this area and will keep you posted. Stay tuned to Car Blog India for more updates.
via – HT
