The country's first electric vehicle REVA, was formally launched here on Monday. REVA is a rugged two-door hatch back which can seat two adults with two children comfortably. The vehicle is priced at Rs. 2,49,500, company officials said. "This is the ideal car for a city," chairman, REVA Electric Car Company Sudarshan Maini told reporters here.

He said that his company had received enquiries from various countries including the United Kingdom, Japan, Mauritius, Nepal, Burma, Israel, Norway and Sri Lanka for the car. The car is priced at dollar 7,000 in the international market. "Our car is priced very competitively in the international market with the nearest equivalent model priced at dollar 22,000," Mr. Maini said.

The cars for which bookings have already been made, would be delivered to customers by the end of June. "We want Bangalore, India's technology capital become the home of electrical vehicles in the country," he said. REVA which has 80 percent of its components indigenised claims to have a running cost of 40 paise per kilometre. The REVA has a mileage of 80 km on a single charge and can be charged using a 220 volt, 15 amp power house.

REVA's power pack has a life of 40,000 km and should last three to four years with city driving, company officials informed.

Managing director, REVA Electric Car Company Chetan Maini said, the car was ideally adapted to city driving.

Though the concept of electric vehicles in India was new, it would find wide acceptance in India because of several unique advantages. "We are planning to sell 1,500 cars in the first year and increase it to 12,000 vehicles in 3 years," he said. He further said that they were expecting concessions for the car from the government and would pass them to their customers.

First conceived in 1995, REVA has been tested for safety and reliability to withstand the most trying of conditions. The tests on the car included 4,00,000 kms of the Shaker test by Araj, Pune. The Shaker test is a simulation of road testing.

The US-based electric vehicle technology company Avet, a joint partner of the company has a stake of 33 percent in it. About Rs 80 crore of investments have been made for developing the car. They would break-even after selling 3,000 vehicles.

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