Even before the country's first and much-delayed electric car 'REVA' could hit the streets, its maker - the Bangalore based Maini group - is now charging up plans to roll out special variants on the electric vehicle (EV) platform targeting specific user segments as taxis, resorts and big corporations.

REVA has been billed as the cheapest car on Indian roads. Being produced under a joint venture between the Mainis and Amerigon of the US, the car will be launched commercially in April, REVA Electric Car Company (RECC) senior vice-president Vijay Chandy told the Times of India. "We will be launching the car initially in Bangalore and in a phased manner roll it out in Chennai, Mysore, Hyderabad and Coimbatore. We are initially targeting the smaller towns and planning to make it a success story there before going national, which is likely to take place in the first quarter of 2002."

The company has already commenced pre-production of the vehicle and at current duty levels, is targeting a price tag of 2 - 2.5 lakh.

. "We expect import duties on certain components of EVs to be reduced in the forthcoming budget and so bring down the price to under Rs.2 lakh." Chandy added. The car boasts of a running cost of 40 paise per km. With the REVA project in its final stages of commercial launch, the company is now looking at expanding its product portfolio and introducing more variants on the car.

" We will be bringing our special variants targeting the taxi segment and also for transportation within resorts and big complexes." The Maini group, which controls 67 per cent stake in RECC, has invested Rs.80 crore to set up a greenfield site for the project. With an installed capacity of 10,000 units per annum the company expects to break even at mere 3,000 units per annum.

The company expects to sell 1,500 units in the first year of operations and later ramp up production to 3,000 units in the second year 10,000 units in the third year and then 12,000 units in the fourth and fifth years. The two-door hatchback can carry two adults and two children and achieve a top speed of 65 kmph.

One full charge will last for 80 km. Eight 6-volt tubular lead acid batteries specially developed for EVs form REVA's power pack and have a life cycle of approximately 40,000 km or 3-4 years.

- Byas Anand