Bangalore: Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles, part of the $15.4 billion Mahindra Group, inaugurated a new manufacturing facility in Bommasandra on the outskirts of Bangalore on Wednesday. In May 2010, Mahindra had acquired a majority stake in Reva Electric Car Company, subsequent to which the company was renamed Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles.
The new manufacturing facility has an installed capacity to produce 30,000 vehicles annually, and is expected to reach full production capacity over the next three years. The company said the facility, which is scheduled to begin production in September, will produce around 6,000 vehicles to begin with.
Till date the Reva brand has sold 4,500 cars. The new facility will see the production of Mahindra Reva's new two-door electric car that it had showcased in the beginning of the year at the auto expo in Delhi. The new car is yet to get a name and a price tag. The current Reva vehicles retail between Rs 4.2 lakh and Rs 5.2 lakh (on road prices Bangalore). The combined investment into the plant and the new product range is over Rs 100 crore, the company said.
"This plant was conceived even before we came on board," Anand Mahindra, CMD of Mahindra Group, said. "Mahindra has turned this plant into a reality, from our expertise of putting up plants in record time and making them cost effective. This is the greenest plant in the Mahindra group," he said. The new manufacturing facility has been awarded the platinum rating from the Indian Green Building Council, becoming the first automobile manufacturing facility in India to receive this certification.
Electric vehicles like Reva are high priced because of battery and other equipments that are imported from around the world. But Mahindra said, "Those costs are now being driven down. In the mean time we will focus on the cost per kilometre." The company says that its electric vehicle technology gives buyers a cost per kilometre of 50 paise to 60 paise, which is 10 times lower than conventional gasoline vehicles.
Mahindra said that the government must put in place a road map for electric vehicles and should emulate the policies seen in countries such as Norway. In the last quarter, 2.6% of cars sold in Norway were electric vehicles, a sector which 18 months ago had a 0.01% share of the country's automobile market. In 1999, China had 40,000 electric two wheelers; today that number has crossed 100 million.
Mahindra said he was also keen to approach enlightened state governments that have strong leaderships, who understand the perils of urbanization and the need to cope with them quickly. "We should treat them as different countries. We should approach these leaders and ask them to put in place a comprehensive policy that would ensure that a particular percentage of vehicles would use alternate fuels by a certain time."
Delhi gives a 15% subsidy for electric vehicles as well as reductions on VAT and road tax. Chhattisgarh and Gujarat have also reduced taxes on electric vehicles, while Karnataka gives a 5% reduction on VAT and has a lower road tax.
1 comment:
Mahindra is no doubt a company which has made excellent machines for farmers and eases their problem of harvesting,threshing and sowing.But now Mahindra is establihing itself in the different segments of car like previously it is known for making taxi and tractor stuff but now it has launched its cars in all segment to capture the more market.
Reva has already won the tag of India's first electric car and now its going to come in stylish version.I am excited to see it on the roads.
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