Indian Autos blog

Curtains were raised on the Mahindra Verito Electric today at the Mahindra stall of the Auto Expo.

The Verito EV sports giant decals shouting out its new heart, redesigned speed control, a new digital meter and REVA badges. Stay tuned for more info.

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The Nissan Leaf was handed out to journalists in a private area yesterday in Noida. The Leaf takes on this journey to eavesdrop on India’s comments at the Auto Expo 2012 and win some fans on the way. It has no plans of extending its stay as the lack of charging terminals and India’s power shortage woes has it worried.

Economies of scale

This one’s making the Micra owner blush – Same start button on Leaf!

We spent a few minutes driving the Leaf and this is what we could get.

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We were invited by Nissan to be part of the “Innovation Drive” yesterday featuring the Leaf and the GT-R models beside the carlines sold in India. Nissan displays the new models at Auto Expo (you read that first on Indian Autos Blog last month). They have not made a decision on the launch any of the two vehicles. Hence don’t expect them at a Nissan dealership in the foreseeable future.

We were allowed to drive the fully-electric Leaf in a small track surrounded by traffic cones to understand the vehicle’s maneuverability, instant acceleration, on-board computer and comfort. The most impressive feature in the Leaf for any driver is the pin-drop silence in the cabin. The acceleration is shocking as 100% torque is available from 0 RPM. The Leaf squashes the myth that electric vehicles are slow and boring. More importantly it achieved a maximum 5 star rating at the EuroNCAP crash test, so its as safe as a house.

The Leaf is driven by an electric motor that generates 110 hp and 280 Nm torque. It is a C-Segment hatchback sporting a interior color scheme, similar to the Micra’s.

On the evening of the Day 1, people behind Renault’s electric vehicle project conducted a presentation to enlighten us on this technology. The electric vehicle has been around in India since the early 2000′s through the form of REVA, which until Renault’s entry was the world’s largest selling electric car.

Over 3,000 examples are on roads today, but the REVA is what karting is to motor racing – its very basic, its sold as a quadricycle in some markets. It uses Lead Acid batteries and the passenger and luggage space seem like an afterthought.

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Day 1 of the Renault Electric Vehicle media drive in Portugal was a very brief one with about 40 minutes spent behind the wheel of the Fluence Z.E. (stands for Zero Emission). This is Renault’s first electric vehicle, launched in some parts of Europe last Friday. We were provided a chance to drive them through the city of Lisbon to see whether this is the next big thing in the auto world.

The journey started at the Airport and concluded at the Onyaria Golf Resorts situated at Cascias, about an hour away from the airport.

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IndianAutosBlog.com has been invited by Renault to drive some of their electric vehicles in Portugal tomorrow. There is hardly any market for such cars in India but over the next few decades, manufacturers will be forced to look at smarter mobility solutions.

Its not hard to imagine petrol selling at over 100 rupees in the near future and the government passing a rule to roll back the benefits of diesel fuel for personal transpiration. This could be serve as the tipping point for car manufacturers to speed up development of road-going vehicles that depend less on petroleum fuels. There is a feeling that unless there is a need, development will not take place.

There’s also the roadblock with battery technology. They have not evolved to a point where they can challenge a tanked-up petrol or diesel car. The range available, even on B Segment cars is under 200km. The smaller Nano EV prototype, a practical solution for our crowded cities for instance has a range of 160km even with L-Ion batteries on board. The REVAi has a shorter range thanks to the age-old Lead Acid battery pack.

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If you recall General Motors tested the Beat EV in India back in June to understand electric car’s ability to acclimatize to our conditions. It was part of the global testing program which GM India, through the showcase, used to pump up the Beat’s brand equity.

Later GM India said the infrastructure to commercialize electric cars in India isn’t ready and a release was not planned anytime soon.

Read about the Chevrolet Beat EV for the Indian market

GM then showed a production model in America, redesigning parts of the car to meet safety standards for a 2013 release. General Motors could adopt a similar design direction on the petroleum-fueled Beat facelift that usually arrives 3-4 years into the model’s life.

Recently GM furnished information on the motive force of this urban runabout GM bets big on, not only in America but globally. It will be assembled using kits flown in from Korea at their facility situated in the state of Maryland.

The Beat EV generates 116PS, compared to the measly 60hp produced by the test mule that visited India. The Indian mule used the Volt’s battery pack that produced 20 kWH providing the Beat a range of 130 km under normal driving conditions. It takes about 8 hours to reach full charge from a 240V power socket. GM has not provided details on the range after this massive power increase.

American customers use powerful cars, giving performance precedence over fuel economy, viewed as the reason behind the power bump.

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Spied here is the electric version of a production-ready Mahindra Gio Compact Cab. The vehicle has ‘Mahindra-REVA’ and ‘Electric Vehicle’ badges on its body and on the interiors as well. This means the motor, batteries and controller are sourced from REVA.

In our chat with Mr Rajan Wadhera, Chief Executive of technology, we understood that REVA will supply powertrains for jointly developed electric vehicles while vehicle building technology will be Mahindra’s contribution. While Mr Wadhera was not specific about which vehicles will get electric counterparts, from this spyshot it is clear that Gio is among them.

The vehicle spied could be a prototype undergoing evaluation and feasibility. It has a top speed of about 50kph and shares many soft components with its diesel-engined sibling. Mahindra has also shown a rolling prototype at the Auto Expo last year of the Maxximo load carrier and has recently initiated projects on transferring electric technology from REVA on to its existing product portfolio.

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