Over 14 years of experience with electric vehicles, during the course of which Chetan has developed over 6 electric, solar and hybrid-electric vehicles in India and US. The man who went ‘green’ long time back, talked to DARE on what drives him.
Let us begin with the genesis of REVA. What were the earlier days like, what were the challenges?
When I was in college at the University of Michigan I had a chance to work on solar electric cars. We raced across the US in a competition, from Florida to Michigan, and stood first. General Motors then sponsored us later that year to race across Australia and we came third in the world. We used to meet a lot of major OEMs, and to me, as a student, what stuck out was the fact that, if you could cross a continent only on sun energy then the future of this electric vehicle and solar electric vehicle would be great. To me, a lot of inspiration came from such participation that opened my eyes to what the possibilities of such technologies could do in the future. I worked through companies in the US doing work on electric vehicles and in one such company that I was working with started the idea of REVA back in 1994. It was at a time when this technology still had a lot of issues; oil prices were comparatively very low, pollution was not being viewed as an issue, and electrics was not really being seen as a potential for being even niche or mainstream product. There was a lot of skepticism in the marketplace. As we started such developments this was slowly overcome, because in the mid-1990s everyone was coming out with electric vehicles. The issue that we saw was the fact that electric cars, even though being made by a lot of people, were very expensive, and had issues on technology. We needed to do something different to overcome all this, and one was that we looked at how could one resolve issues of battery management, and so we got several patents in that area. We also looked at getting the cost correct, and in this area we looked at trying to design the product differently, and different manufacturing processes, methodologies of integration of electronics; which I think was fairly unique.
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Challenges were that we were a small team, trying to build a company that is very innovative, which we had to start from a clean slate and that allowed us to look at lot of innovations and ideas, which I think were very instrumental in getting the product out.
What does it take to design an electric car?
Well, today in our R&D, we have around 75 people that are focusing on new model developments. To develop the first generation of electric car, we started in 1994 and we rolled it out in 2001; so the first time it took us some 7 years. That’s because we had to develop a lot of core patents, core technologies, which did not exist, to make such vehicles viable and cost-effective. We worked out new processes in manufacturing. I think that the first time took a long time. Today, I would say that if we need to release new models, it would be in two years' time frame because the core technologies have been developed and we have even adapted to them. A lot of the core technologies in many ways are in open architecture, so you can change the software and re-configure the applications further. That is how long it takes and the kind of money we spend to get an electric car out there.
What were the hurdles that you faced in India?
The hurdles have been numerous. Initially, there were hurdles in fund raising, like convincing banks to fund such projects. Government policies were another hurdle. For example, before we started the project, we had a subsidy of over a lac of rupees per car, and the excise duty used to be at 8%. Right before launching, the subsidy disappeared and excise duty doubled to 16%, while excise on regular cars came down. So we have had these shocks that continuously come from the government perspective. We actually expected that with environment friendly products being made in India, we would get more support and the support won't go away overnight.
Another initial challenge was convincing the marketplace. Being the only player in the space was also very difficult. If you had ten people who were selling electric vehicles, they would all create a market space for a new product. If you are the only one then you are doing a lot more work on convincing, because the person walking in has no clue about how it works. So he is not coming to buy, he just wants to know more about it. To me, in India, more than in the area of technology, there were hurdles in the areas of finances, government, marketing and HR and these continue to be a challenge. When you are in a niche space, getting a team that has the capabilities and the potential for growth is especially challenging.
How has the experience been?
In hindsight, I would say, “Oh my God! If this is what I am going to do, I would never get into it.” (Laughs) At different points of time, the challenges were different. Initially the challenges were related to technology. How do you develop technologies that would work? Moving on to finances, how do you convince financial institutions and people to put money in something like this? How do you develop teams and capabilities? It is not as simple as saying, “Hey, I want to make electric cars, can you come and join me?” We had to do electronics, electricals, software, mechanical engineering, automotive, batteries… it is not as simple as in a regular automobile company. You have marketing challenges even today in do you convince customers about the value proposition? I think that there has been a host of challenges right through and there has been several times where there were lows and highs. But we strongly believe in it and I believe that, once you start to swim, you have just got to swim harder when it gets more difficult; otherwise you are going to sink. We have been swimming harder.
In today’s world of multistoreyed apartments and congested roads, what is the fix for recharging?
I can give you our experiences. We have over 250 customers who live in multistoreyed apartments. In Bangalore, since most of buildings are newer, they either have basement parking or they have parking inside the building complex. As a part of the cost of delivering the car, we offer a service where we actually provide a connection from basement to your parking spot plug point, which you would then use to charge. That’s included as part of the entire cost of the car and we do it a couple of days before the car is delivered to you. So in markets like in Bangalore or newer apartments in most of the cities, this is not a problem.
I do foresee a little bit of an issue in areas like in Mumbai, where you have much older apartments. In London where we have sold a fair number of cars, there have been issues too. However, it has been resolved because the government has been very proactive and has put electric charging facilities in all the parking lots. So people who park their car can just plug their car immediately and get it charged. I think that over time you will see infrastructure being built up, but right now most of our customers who are buying the car have access to a plug point, drive it all around and come home in the evening and plug it in like their mobile phones and take off the next day.
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written by TARUN KUMAR, September 01, 2010
Thou late, I heartlity congratulate you for initiating a great eco-friendly movement on Indian roads. Having gone thru many reviews on REVA car, I understand that it definately serves its purpose fully but with the hiccups that I'm sure will vanish in much shorter period than expected.
I'm an Environmental Scientist at Hyderabad and aspiring to take a aggressive lead in promoting this concept of pollution-free driving. But I would like to understand thouroughly about few points as of now,
1. The measures being undertaken for improvising the technology and product features.
2. What is the mechanism of battery replacement/reuse/disposal after its lifetime?
3. I have few ideas for a viable promotion of REVA / e-scooty on indian roads, which would not only increase sales but more so generate varied associations that will lead to commonising these vehicles on the indian roads and equally provide indirect revenue generation as a bonus.
I would like to meet you for realising a promising mutual association. Please reply ASAP.
Tarun Mathur
TASC ENVIRO CONSULTING
09849152876
written by BHUPINDER SINGH, June 21, 2010
I am pleased to introduce myself as an Innovator and have some thing may be very useful for you
MULTIPURPOSE ELECTRICITY & ENERGY GENERATION THROUGH WASTE MANAGEMENT OF VEHICLE
It is a system to generate Kinetic Energy as well as FREE OF COST Electricity from the waste management in the vehicle like Car, Jeep, Truck, Bus and two/Three wheelers, Boats etc, without affecting the performance or warranty given by the vehicle manufacturer. This device can be fitted on any vehicle, new or old, even as an OE or retrofitted in the market. The electricity thus generated can be stored in the main or additional batteries in the vehicle. This system is more productive for four or more wheeler vehicles.
This device can also be used to propel any vehicle and save on fuel.
ADVANTAGE - Batteries charged can be connected to the inverter at home or office, when vehicle is parked, which will save in the cost of Home / Office Electricity Bills
- If fitted on any Electric or Hybrid Vehicle, it will multiply the running capacity of the vehicle per charge. And may be, the additional Charging not required, at all. Running cost of the vehicle can be brought down to nearest to Zero, or absolute Zero This will affect in the demand of such vehicles. So far, long charging time, and less running capacity had been the main negative factor in the Sales of the much required non polluting vehicles.
- If fitted on fossil fuel based conventional vehicles along with or without additional Electric Motor, to propel the vehicle, it will cut in fuel consumption of any vehicle.
PRODUCT COST - Depending upon the size, features and capacity, it may cost Rs. 2,000/- to
Rs. 10,000/- each
BASIC PROTOTYPE COST – Rs. 2,00,000/-
TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER,AUTHORIZATION COST - (First Buyer )- Rs.1.5 Cr.
I look forward to hear from you
Thanks
Bhupinder Singh
09313887849 INDIA
written by ., January 25, 2010
Great initiatives with firm foundations always take persistence and early start. Kudos to your belief in clean energy. Definitely, you would maintain the greenest position in Indian car market.
written by Thyagarajulu Venkata Kadiyala, January 22, 2010
Hyndai electric car will come shortly, So you should change the body design of REVA ELECTRIC CAR, seating capacity you can adopt technology from JAPAN
written by Alan, January 14, 2010
Have you thought about creating a battery replacement scheme similar to the one Better Place in California is talking about? Using robots to replace batteries rather than charging is more practical currently since battery charging is by far slower.
written by darshak shah, April 27, 2009
dr.d.shah.
written by Govind Bhat, December 10, 2008
Govind
9448576238
written by Krishna G Setty, December 07, 2008
since long a question is pondering in me that, why you havn't given a thought to reenerzige the batteries in REVA using Solar Panels by which not only the car will be 100% pollution free but also it can run for longer distance due to continued charge of Batteries!.
Thus, the very limitations of present REVA models that it can run for 80km per charge & it still uses energy generated from polluting source may be overcome.
Talking of costing, you may be still be able to maintain the same or slightly exceed the pricing by replacing the present MOC of the body of REVA with Solar Panels.
Lookforward to see the REVA running using solar power panels soooooon!.
Best Regards.
Krishna G Setty
9901945415 / 9886751672.
written by Deepak Raj, November 07, 2008
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I have tried contacting you with no success. Can you please give me your contact details,so we can speak. Thank You