Corporate: The REVA's power-play

CORPORATE
The REVA's power-play

Although Chetan Maini could have a winner up electric car, success will eventually depend on its price and performance.

-Dilip Maitra

He was always a bright spark. Eighteen years ago, as a sixth- grader in Bangalore's St Joseph's Boys' School, Chetan Maini had designed his first car: a remote-controlled, battery-operated toy that won him the first prize in the school's science exhibition. Now, at 30, Chetan is revving up for the September, 2000, launch of his first real car: the Reva. Chetan prototyped the battery-operated vehicle-incidentally, India's first electric car-back in June, 1996.

The third and youngest son of Sudarshan Maini-the Chairman of the Rs 80-crore, 4-company Maini Group-Chetan picked up the technical competence that went into the creation of the Reva while graduating from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, with a special focus on solar-powered vehicles, which he followed up in graduation school with work on hybrid electric vehicles. Then came 6 months of internship at General Motors' electric-vehicles factory, topped up by two-and-half years as project manager in Amerigon Inc., a California-based R&D outfit specialising in electric cars.

Obviously, Maini couldn't possibly have done anything else but create his own electric car. As he puts it: ''Cars are my passion, and the Reva is my dream that will soon become a reality.'' The ignition key on the dream project was turned in June, 1994, when the Reva Electric Car Co. (RECC) was incorporated with Amerigon-which helped develop the chassis-contributing 32 per cent of the Rs 5.80-crore equity, and the rest held by Maini Precision Products and Maini Materials Movement.

Ready market

That there is a market for an electric car has never been in doubt. The only roadblock so far has been the inability of auto-makers to design an electric-car that converts electrical power efficiently enough into motive power to keep running costs low. So, is the Rs 87 crore that RECC has invested in developing the Reva going to result in a vehicle that can circumvent this roadblock? Says Hormazd Sorabjee, 35, Auto Analyst, and Editor, Autocar India: ''If Reva's claim of keeping the running costs at 40 paise per km is achieved, the car will be attractive to cost-conscious consumers who are ready to compromise on the limitations of an electric car.''

Sure, Maini has ensured that the potential customer has a say in designing the Reva: the feedback from 3,000 people, across 9 cities, has been used to set the design parameters for the car. The dimensions of the car-the 2-door vehicle, ideal for ferrying 2 adults and 2 children, is 21 per cent shorter and 8 per cent narrower than the Maruti 800-are good enough for urban maneouverability. But the factors that could make the Reva a high-voltage success-or short-circuit it-are economy and efficiency.

Low running costs

The Reva's power comes from a 6-volt lead acid battery that, when fully charged, can run up to 80 km. As re-charging the battery costs Rs 32, that works out to a running cost of 40 paise per km, compared to Rs 2.15-based on petrol prices in Bangalore and a mileage of 15 km/ litre-for the Maruti 800. Says Sudarshan Maini: ''It's like running a car at the cost of a two-wheeler.''

Not quite. Factor in the replacement cost of a battery-Rs 25,000 after 40,000 km-and the operating cost over a running distance of 40,000 km works out to 90 paise per km. Still, that's much lower than that of a conventional competitor's. And the Mainis expect to peg the price of the Reva, once their 25,000-units-a-year (single shift), Rs 18-crore factory near Bangalore goes on-stream in 2002, at Rs 1.75 lakh.

If the upside is so strong, what could possibly dent the Reva? For starters, the need to limit the payload of a laden car to 227 kg will shut out all but nuclear families from its target market. Comments Sorabjee: ''The limited sitting capacity will restrict Reva's market to very small families.'' Shrugs Chetan: ''I think we will get enough numbers in this segment.'' However, a larger car is on RECC's drawing boards, too.

The bigger problem is recharging. The powerpack needs 8 hours for a complete re-charge-although 80 per cent replenishment is possible in 3 hours-which effectively limits its usage. All this adds up to a need to position the Reva as a city-car for the small family-ideally, a second vehicle. And this could shrink its market. Aware of that, Chetan is starting small, with Bangalore-and with a target of 1,500 cars in the first year-and will move into other towns in the second year, when he hopes to sell 3,000 units. During this period, the car will be produced at a make-shift assembly unit until the new factory is ready.

Given RECC's modest targets, meeting those numbers may not be difficult initially. But only after the Reva proves itself, can Chetan claim to have created an electrical storm in the country's automart.

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