The Indian Auto Expo 2014 in Delhi has been interesting and disappointing at the same time. If you are expecting major announcements from Indian and Global auto manufacturers concerning electric mobility launches, then we haven't seen much. BMW did not showcase the BMW i3 pure electric. Nissan has ignored the Leaf for the Indian market. No big Indian manufacturer like Tata, Maruti have showcased any electric concept car either.
However Mahindra Reva has done some great work over the years to create an EV market here in India.
Their e2o electric car is a pleasure to drive and own. This blog highlights some major announcements by them at the Auto Expo 2014.
I shall update the blog as and when more news comes though. So stay tuned!
However Mahindra Reva has done some great work over the years to create an EV market here in India.
Their e2o electric car is a pleasure to drive and own. This blog highlights some major announcements by them at the Auto Expo 2014.
I shall update the blog as and when more news comes though. So stay tuned!
Mahindra Reva are maintaining their ambitious plans for the EV market. It was apparent from the way they stormed the show on Day 2. They showcased a new sports electric car called Halo, which has a top speed of 162 km/hr, races from 0-100 in less than 8 seconds and has a range of 200 kms in one full charge.
Looks good huh?
"There is a plan to commercialize Halo, we are working on a bigger powertrain and a final design. It will take about three years to be production ready," says Mahindra & Mahindra Executive Director, Pawan Goenka.
"It may very well turn out that the market for the car may be outside India...unless there is government support for electric vehicles, the car could be launched outside India first," Goenka said.
Illustrating the point i had made, about government support in my previous blog.
There is a market for such cool looking cars in India. Also cars like these on Indian roads will forever shed the 'golf cart'/'low power small car' image of electric cars.
"This car has been fully designed and developed in India with all indigenous technology," Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicle CEO Chetan Maini said. Terrific stuff, i must say. Mahindra Reva is going from strength to strength. We are lucky we have a company that is innovating right here in India and believes in the vision of clean mobility.
Apparently the Halo will be available with two options – one will have a range between 100 to 150 km and the top-end model will have a range of 200 km. The car will only get into the market sometime in 2016. So as of now, this is a pure concept car. Although an impressive concept!
We at Pluginindia.com hope Mahindra mass produces the Halo.
"There is a plan to commercialize Halo, we are working on a bigger powertrain and a final design. It will take about three years to be production ready," says Mahindra & Mahindra Executive Director, Pawan Goenka.
"It may very well turn out that the market for the car may be outside India...unless there is government support for electric vehicles, the car could be launched outside India first," Goenka said.
Illustrating the point i had made, about government support in my previous blog.
There is a market for such cool looking cars in India. Also cars like these on Indian roads will forever shed the 'golf cart'/'low power small car' image of electric cars.
"This car has been fully designed and developed in India with all indigenous technology," Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicle CEO Chetan Maini said. Terrific stuff, i must say. Mahindra Reva is going from strength to strength. We are lucky we have a company that is innovating right here in India and believes in the vision of clean mobility.
Apparently the Halo will be available with two options – one will have a range between 100 to 150 km and the top-end model will have a range of 200 km. The car will only get into the market sometime in 2016. So as of now, this is a pure concept car. Although an impressive concept!
We at Pluginindia.com hope Mahindra mass produces the Halo.
Mahindra also showcased the Verito Electric Sedan. This launch of this car is very important, as consumers will start having options when it comes to buying an EV. The launch of the Verito Electric will also shed a lot of inhibitions about electric cars.
The Mahindra Verito Electric is powered by a 29 KW AC Motor, when you compare this to the e2o's motor's power of 19 kW. Although it still cannot compete with the power of the Nissan Leaf's motor at 80 kW (110 hp)/280 N·m of torque). High torque is not a necessity in Indian roads, anyway. So that is acceptable.
The big question, we would like to know is the size of the battery pack. That was not disclosed by them. Mahindra says the range of the Verirto Electric would be 100 km just like the e2o, which has a 10kWh battery pack for a car that charges in around 4 hours time.
So even though Verito Electric goes the same distance as the e2o, the Verito electric is a bigger car that weighs more than 1000 kg, and thus it would need a bigger battery pack as compared to the e2o.
My guess would be a Lithium-ion battery pack which can store upto 16-18 kWh worth of energy, should propel the Verito electric for 100 kms.
I hope Mahindra provides options for customers to opt for a bigger battery pack (say a pack that goes 100 km and a bigger pack that provides a range of 150 km)
Mr Chetan Maini had this to say about the Verito Electric. “There has been no compromise in specs. Almost everything including the boot will be of similar size. We expect to launch the car sometime this year,”
So this is good news! We will have an Electric car launch this year. I hope our government keeps its end of the bargain and launches those subsidies!
The big question, we would like to know is the size of the battery pack. That was not disclosed by them. Mahindra says the range of the Verirto Electric would be 100 km just like the e2o, which has a 10kWh battery pack for a car that charges in around 4 hours time.
So even though Verito Electric goes the same distance as the e2o, the Verito electric is a bigger car that weighs more than 1000 kg, and thus it would need a bigger battery pack as compared to the e2o.
My guess would be a Lithium-ion battery pack which can store upto 16-18 kWh worth of energy, should propel the Verito electric for 100 kms.
I hope Mahindra provides options for customers to opt for a bigger battery pack (say a pack that goes 100 km and a bigger pack that provides a range of 150 km)
Mr Chetan Maini had this to say about the Verito Electric. “There has been no compromise in specs. Almost everything including the boot will be of similar size. We expect to launch the car sometime this year,”
So this is good news! We will have an Electric car launch this year. I hope our government keeps its end of the bargain and launches those subsidies!
The Mahindra e2o has been updated too with a new smart port that enables intelligent control of two direction transfer of energy to and from the electric vehicle. The smart port supports Quick2Charge (DC Fast Charging), Sun2Car (Solar Charging), Car2Home(technology by which e2o can power your home) - all from a single port in the car.
The car can be fully recharged in one hour, while a recharge of 15 minutes will give a range of 25 km.
This is good news. All the new e2o's sold will have this smart port. I hope existing e2o customers can also avail this smart port. As its a hardware update, they might charge existing e2o owners. But the benefits of DC quick charging outweigh the price. More details will be posted here as and when i get some information.
Mahindra have also announced that they will start installing DC quick charge stations. This is a boon. As i have illustrated in my blog on DC quick charging. Strategically placed quick chargers will enable, existing customers of the Mahindra e2o to occasionally travel more than 100 kms and thus solve the problem of long distance driving. It would also help Mahindra sell the Verito electric car, once they set up a DC quick charging station say between Mumbai and Pune for example. This is a right way to go.
The car can be fully recharged in one hour, while a recharge of 15 minutes will give a range of 25 km.
This is good news. All the new e2o's sold will have this smart port. I hope existing e2o customers can also avail this smart port. As its a hardware update, they might charge existing e2o owners. But the benefits of DC quick charging outweigh the price. More details will be posted here as and when i get some information.
Mahindra have also announced that they will start installing DC quick charge stations. This is a boon. As i have illustrated in my blog on DC quick charging. Strategically placed quick chargers will enable, existing customers of the Mahindra e2o to occasionally travel more than 100 kms and thus solve the problem of long distance driving. It would also help Mahindra sell the Verito electric car, once they set up a DC quick charging station say between Mumbai and Pune for example. This is a right way to go.
DC Quickcharge station
I hope Mahindra is clever about choosing the location of these quick charging stations. It better to have these on major highways between important cities than in the cities themselves - where most owners charge at home anyway.
Also from inside sources, i have learnt that Mahindra has chosen the CHAdeMo standard on their ports for DC quick charging. CHAdeMO is a DC quick-charge protocol originated in Japan and used in the Nissan Leaf, Mitsubishi MiEV and a few others. Nissan is expanding CHAdeMO charging stations across USA and Europe. So its good to see Mahindra opting for an established standard.
Also from inside sources, i have learnt that Mahindra has chosen the CHAdeMo standard on their ports for DC quick charging. CHAdeMO is a DC quick-charge protocol originated in Japan and used in the Nissan Leaf, Mitsubishi MiEV and a few others. Nissan is expanding CHAdeMO charging stations across USA and Europe. So its good to see Mahindra opting for an established standard.
The SmartPort for the e2o that sends DC current directly to the battery pack
The Immediate Future
Mahindra needs to work on the following soon
Lets hope 2014 is a great year for Mahindra Reva. Because in a few years time, we will definitely have global players and big Indian auto makers entering the EV scene.
Mahindra Reva has a first mover advantage and should make the most of it! Go Reva!
Mahindra needs to work on the following soon
- Build DC Quick charge infrastructure as soon as possible around major Indian cities.
My blog illustrates the need for DC quick charge infrastructure. Adding one or two CHAdeMO quick chargers around major Indian cities wont cost much. There will be huge sales benefits, as illustrated in the blog. - Introducing the Verito EV at the earliest, preferably after installing these DC quick charging stations between important cities like Mumbai to Pune, Mumbai to Ahemdabad, Delhi to Chandigarh, Bangalore to Chennai/Hyderabad etc.
Verito would make a great EV and a price under Rs 10 Lakh (without subsidy) along with a good DC quick charge infrastructure would make it an attractive proposition. - Fast forward their export to other countries ASAP. This has to be done in tandem with pushing the car sales locally.
Lets hope 2014 is a great year for Mahindra Reva. Because in a few years time, we will definitely have global players and big Indian auto makers entering the EV scene.
Mahindra Reva has a first mover advantage and should make the most of it! Go Reva!
UPDATE - 03/16/2013
PlugInIndia got couple of updates from Mr Chetan Maini, CHIEF OF STRATEGY & TECHNOLOGY - Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles, about DC quick charging in India
Here are the tweets
https://twitter.com/MainiChetan/status/442117413706797056
https://twitter.com/MainiChetan/status/442116922616729600
Summary
a) The smart port, which sends DC directly to the battery pack, can be installed in earlier e2o's & is backward compatible. So all customers of the e2o one can use quick2charge,sun2car & soon car2home via a single port.
quick2charge - is using DC quick charging station
sun2car - the is the solar power system, that will plugin to the smart port to send DC power directly to the battery pack
car2home - Where your battery pack acts as an inverter during emergencies
b) Mahindra is also planning to roll out DC fast charging in key cities and are also evaluating some highways.
PlugInIndia got couple of updates from Mr Chetan Maini, CHIEF OF STRATEGY & TECHNOLOGY - Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles, about DC quick charging in India
Here are the tweets
https://twitter.com/MainiChetan/status/442117413706797056
https://twitter.com/MainiChetan/status/442116922616729600
Summary
a) The smart port, which sends DC directly to the battery pack, can be installed in earlier e2o's & is backward compatible. So all customers of the e2o one can use quick2charge,sun2car & soon car2home via a single port.
quick2charge - is using DC quick charging station
sun2car - the is the solar power system, that will plugin to the smart port to send DC power directly to the battery pack
car2home - Where your battery pack acts as an inverter during emergencies
b) Mahindra is also planning to roll out DC fast charging in key cities and are also evaluating some highways.