Electric cars will be common

Last week I was standing at a departmental store's entrance when a little car zipped by from nowhere. The people around me looked amused and someone said 'It's a Nano!', then someone immediately added 'No, it's a new Maruti'. The car actually was the smart, fun and trendy Reva! Such little cars will become a common sight in the coming years.

Based in Bangalore, the Reva is one of the most established electric car manufacturers in the world, with a vehicle that initially went on sale in 2001. The Reva is a small 2-door hatchback intended for city trips and commuting, and is definitely useful in the stop-start congested traffic conditions. It claims to give 80km on a 8 hours full charge and that too at a price tag of Rs 3.5 lakhs which means a running cost of just 40 paise/km! Impressive!

With recent reports of GM and Reva Electric Car Company signing an agreement for developing electric vehicles, the electric car today is undoubtedly the auto industry's new darling. There are three main reasons for this:

1. Technology has changed and a lot can be done with batteries in terms of autonomy of the car, size of the battery, longevity of the battery.
2. Today the problem of the environment is not a problem for the specialists alone. The public wants more environmentally friendly car.
3. And finally, the ever increasing price of petrol.

Click here to calculate your savings using a Reva in comparison to your existing vehicle. I can save Rs. 8000 over a year period with Reva! How much can you? No wonder, it is estimated that by 2020, 10-12% of the car market or about 8.5 million people will opt for electric cars. So, let's 'charge' on the road!