Reva gets USD 20 mn investment; to expand

Bangalore, Dec 2: Reva Electric Car Company, manufacturers of India's first electric car REVA, today announced that it had received an investment of US Dollars 20 million for its expansion plan both in India and abroad.

Disclosing this to newspersons here, RECC Deputy Chairman and Chief Technical Officer Chetan Maini said international investment firms Draper and Fisher Jurveston and Global Environment Fund led the investments in support of REVA's strategic growth globally. RECC would use this investment to expand its business by increasing its production capacity, developing newer models and further enhancing its international and domestic distribution, he explained.

He said Reva would also be introduced soon in the domestic market in major cities such as New Delhi and Mumbai.

Mr Maini said the existing model was currently available in India and marketed in Britain, Italy, Malta, Sri Lanka, Cyprus and Greece.

In all, there were more than 1800 units, including 600 in London.

Reva was also being test marketed in countries such as the United States, Ireland, Australia, Norway, Spain, Japan and European countries, he added.

He said that though the company had a production capacity of 6,000 units, the production would be around 2,500 during the next one year. ''We are still far behind the production capacity.'' However, since the global market was showing keen interest in more usage of electric car, the requirement might be around 30,000 during the next five years, he observed, stating that electric vehicles were gaining more popularity in international markets as countries were becoming more environmentally-conscious.

UNI