With e2o, Mahindra steps into future

Mahindra Reva on Monday rolled out its much-awaited all-electric passenger car e2o despite the government dragging its feet on announcement of subsidies for electric vehicles.

e2o will cost Rs5.96 lakh on-road in Delhi and factors the subsidy offered by Delhi government, the company said.

The car would be available immediately in around 25 dealerships across eight cities and would be rolled out nationwide in a phased manner.

Mahindra Reva, part of the Mahindra and Mahindra group, had first showcased the car at the Delhi Auto Expo in 2012, then codenamed NXR. The group changed the name to e2o – short for energy to oxygen – in keeping with the tradition of having all its vehicle names end with ‘o’.

e2o will use next generation Lithium Ion batteries and will have a range of 100 km on a full charge.

Mahindra is convinced there is a market for the new product.

It has a capacity of producing 30,000 vehicles annually at its plant near Bangalore and hopes to sell around 400-500 units a month.

The subsidy offered on electric vehicles expired in March last year, following which sales of electric two-wheelers and four-wheelers declined almost 50%. An extension of the subsidy scheme was expected in the Budget, but that did not come.  

Anand Mahindra, chairman, Mahindra Group, rued the lack of government help.
“We do not want to base our future sales on subsidies. But it would have been nice if there was some help from the government,” he said, adding, the price of the car would have been lower if the subsidies were continued.

To be sure, Phase 1 of the National Electric vehicle Mission policy is expected to be implemented in the second half of this year, where the government has allocated funds worth Rs20,000 crore for development of the industry.

Chetan Maini, chief of strategy & technology, Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles, said e2o is four-times more efficient compared with cars in the same range.

The company, which has discontinued its previous electric car model Revai, will begin exporting the vehicles by early next year, starting with European countries.
“We also see potential in neighbouring countries like Nepal and Sri Lanka as import duties on electric vehicles are quite low in certain countries,” said Maini.

@Yugac