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.

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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News today is carrying a bit of a green flavor, after M&M scorched the “World Hydrogen Technologies Convention” with its Hy-Alfas, comes news about tiny REVA…that its not so tiny anymore. REVA is in the process of building the world’s largest electric car manufacturing plant in Bangalore, India with an annual capacity of, wait for it, 30,000 cars. That is a huge number for what is essentially a niche vehicle with a small but dedicated customer-base. The world’s largest electric car manufacturer (that’s right!) REVA, marketed as G-WIZ in the UK and elsewhere outside India has been seeing a surge in demand the last few years and this is their answer to avoid any Prius-like supply & demand issues.

REVA also intends to carry the green theme all the way through the plant and not just focus on making a green car. The plant will have rain water harvesting, solar power tapping natural light ventilation and a CO2 monitor as well. The employees will be ferried in and out in all-electric buses and be entertained in a games room (not sure if its ‘green’ themed one though). Love it or hate it, one has to admire REVA’s vision and spunk to put up with the big boys of the auto world. Here’s wishing little REVA…oops! Freaking huge REVA all the best.