GM India is taking things seriously when it comes to its electric car on the pipe-line, Spark. As reported earlier GM has tied-up with India’s only electric car maker Reva to provide the electric technological backing for making the Spark electric variant. GM has gone few more steps to make its Greener vision more real.
Quoting the words of Mr. Karl Slym, President and Managing Director, GM India
“We already have a joint venture with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) for servicing our vehicles at some places, which can be replicated”, “For the success of the battery-run car, electric charging stations on roads and highways are a must”.
From this we can expect GM to strike a deal with BPCL to set up electric recharging units for electric cars at BPCL’s bunks, if that happens it would be a break through which pave way for zero-emission personal transportation.
Mr. Kark Slym also said that “We are going to manufacture not in hundreds but in thousands the electric car we would be launching next year,” GM India not stopping its Green theme here, it has an Aveo-CNG on the working for India.
After Audi of America’s president Johan de Nysschen confirmed that they are working on a Tesla Roadster rival, Auto Express has put together a rendering of the car under development.
This new Audi has been named R4 as in half of what an R8 is. The R4 will get the drive train from the Frankfurt fame R8 e-tron concept. 4 electric motors powered by lithium-ion batteries will power the R4. Two motors to each axle makes it a 4-wheel drive, the way Audi likes it.
The R4 is expected to have a power out put of 300bhp with a mammoth electric torque of 4500Nm, which will push the car to 60mph from stationary in under 4.8seconds. The top speed is 140mph which is the top of the line for any electric. It promises a range of 155 miles per charge. The car comes in both coupe and drop-top versions.
If you aren’t an electric person like Clarkson, Audi is also making a petrol version.
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GM India and Reva finally strike a deal. The speculation has been around for a while now and it has been made official. According to the deal GM India and Reva will jointly make electric versions of the GM’s small cars starting with Spark. U-VA and GM’s yet to be launched small car beat will also benefit from the deal.
The first EV from GM will seen the sun in 2010. It will have options of both lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries. The lead-acid batteries are the conventional one with a range of 80kms. The lithium-ions are expensive with a longer range of 120kms. The lithium-ion battery version of the cars will be twice as expensive as the petrol variants as the battery itself costs 3Lakh rupees and it has to be imported.
GM India’s platform will be used by Reva to install its electric technology in to the car for which GM pays a royalty fee to Reva. Both the firms have strong backing of the Indian Government, since this promotes the step towards zero-emission personal transportation.
When Karl Slym, President and Managing Director of GM India spoke “Electric car technology is fast growing in the domestic market, primarily due to government support, by this agreement signed today, we hope to get the first mover advantage in the consumer’s minds”
Chetan Maini, Deputy Chairman and Chief technology officer of Reva said that they have been approached by other companies for a similar deal but “Nothing has been finalized”.
Reva launched its two new EVs at Frankfurt. We already brought you the info on the cars which you can read here. What’s new this time around is the meaning of the names NXR and NXG and the pricing. NXR means “NeXt Reva” and NXG stands for “NeXt Generation”.
Both the cars have two different battery choices Lithium-ion batteries or Lead-acid batteries. Reva also gives customers the choice of paying for both the car and the battery during purchase or just paying for the car during purchase and pay a monthly rent for the battery.
The NXR with Lithium-ion battery will cost 14,995 Euros which comes to an equivalent of Rs. 12 lakhs. The NXR with lead-acid battery costs 9,995 Euros which comes to an equivalent of Rs. 8Lakh. Both these prices don’t include the price of the batteries and the customer has to pay Reva a monthly rent for the battery.
The NXG will cost 23,000 Euro which comes to an equivalent of Rs. 18.4Lakh. NXG will be on sale from 2011 while the NXR will be available from 2010. We reckon both the cars will be a bit cheaper in India with reduced luxuries. Reva will announce the Indian prices in January 2010. The cars can be ordered at Reva’s new website www.revaglobal.com by paying a refundable fee of 500 Euros.
Click through for the Press release and Photos from Frankfurt.
Hyundai launched an electric version of the i10 in Korea. This i10 will be powered by a 49Kw electric motor and a 1Kw lithium-ion polymer battery which will push the i10 electric to a top speed of 120kmph and an acceleration of 0-100kmph in 15 seconds.
The i10 electric will have a range of 150kms on a single charge. The party piece of the i10 electric is how quickly it gets charged, the battery can be charged to 85% capacity in 15 minutes. Full charging will take up to 5 hours. This is attributed to the lithium-ion polymer battery which offers a weight drop of 30%, volume drop of 40% and efficiency boost of 12% compared to nickel batteries.
Everything looks bright until we arrive at the cost factor. The battery unit in the i10 electric itself costs Rs. 6lakh, which is more than the price of a basic i10. Hyundai sees electric as the future and due to the recent introduction of tax incentives from electric cars in Seoul Hyundai developed this variant.
Reva is one of the most serious electric car makers in the world and it is likely to be taken more seriously at the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show. Reva is planning to unveil two new models in Frankfurt. They are name Reva NXR and Reva NXG.
The NXR will be a four-seat, two-door hatchback family car which runs on lead-acid battery. It is expected to have a range of 80kms per charge and a top speed of 80 Kmph. Production will start at the beginning of 2011 at Reva’s new Green manufacturing plant in Bangalore. NXR can be booked at the Reva display station at the Motor show.
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