The cult of Reva

Meeting in Mumbai at 9 a.m. At 6 in the morning, you’re listening to Leonard Cohen’s distinctive voice in your car as you drive down Delhi roads to the airport. There, you’ll press a button that will fold your car to almost half its size and stack it with other such collapsed cars. On your return that evening, you unfold your car, connect it to a charging station, power the battery, and drive off. Half way home, you realise you’ve not charged the battery enough. Click an app on your phone, and seconds later your battery indicator shows that there’s enough power to get you home comfortably.

Sounds like something out of an Asimov story? It’s actually happening—most of it, at any rate. The rest is in Chetan Maini’s mind. The man who developed India’s first electric vehicle, the Reva-i, is now dreaming of creating a connected and networked world powered by Reva. He’s looking at a time when communities will come up around electric vehicles and people will swap power and batteries like they do photos and songs today.

Maini founded the Reva Electric Car Company in 1994, and the Reva-i was launched in 2001. But the company was soon in financial trouble, and automobile company Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) bought Reva in 2010. That was soon after M&M had parted ways with Renault (ending the joint venture with the French auto giant to make Logan sedans), and the Reva acquisition was a step into the small cars space—as well as into electric vehicles. “The whole business of the ‘connected’ car was the kicker,” says Pawan Goenka, chairman of Mahindra Reva, and head of M&M’s auto and farm equipment businesses. M&M kept Maini on as chief of strategy and technology, and gave him free rein to continue work on his next electric car, codenamed NXR, which had been on Maini’s drawing board for some years.

Being acquired by M&M freed up Reva and Maini to experiment with personal transportation without the constant and very real fear of money drying up. The results are in the new E2O. The Reva R&D team designed and integrated GPS navigation on touchscreens, a phone app to remotely monitor and control air-conditioning, car locking, vehicle performance with SMS alerts, and so on, into the electric vehicle. As early as 2006, Maini had showcased real-time access to vehicle performance data, something that’s in evidence in the E2O. All this in a car that looks like a car. A review on the auto enthusiasts’ forum Team-BHP says the E2O is “no longer a quirky little toy like the Reva-i; the E2O is here to play with the big boys”.

“The E2O is a significant step-up from the Reva-i for sure, from the points of view of both engineering and usage (consumer),” says Chinmay Pandit, who manages strategic relations (hybrid projects) at KPIT Cummins, a global products engineering consultancy headquartered in Pune.

Meanwhile, for Maini and all those involved in the project, the car is almost incidental. Indeed, the new Mahindra E2O comes with a small decal that says, “Powered by Reva”, a sign that says Reva is synonymous with the technology, not necessarily the product. And the technology is what Maini hopes will be the talking point. “This is 15 years of work, amounting to between 30,000 and 40,000 lines of code,” he says proudly. This is what is core to the company: “The entire integration of electronics, ventilation, packaging, software, and working of it is done by us.”

With the E2O’s telematics and online platform, all E2O owners are effectively on one network, creating some sort of social network in its own right. That’s what Maini wants—and not just on the E2O network. He wants a community of developers to come up and put Reva’s technology to other uses; in other cars, sure, but also in houses, pumps, and other electricity guzzlers. He envisages a network of users who will share notes on using the Reva. In short, he wants a cult.

“To see the power of a brand, it comes from the people who will spout venom at the other side [other cars]. The consumers become fire-breathing evangelists who share the passion for electric cars,” says Santosh Desai, CEO of Future Brands and former president of McCann Erickson India, when asked what it would take to build a cult around a car.

India has a largely poor record in creating cult icons; Fabindia and Enfield are the only two brands that come up repeatedly in conversations about cults. Desai believes that Mahindra Reva could see a cult following, and talks of how the Royal Enfield bike managed to create a cult despite (or perhaps because of) premium pricing. “You will not have buyers. You will have aficionados and followers of what you’re trying to do,” he says. “When the mood shifts, what was considered to be off the radar and too far out suddenly becomes something you want to look at,” he adds.

To kickstart a community, Mahindra Reva signed up StrawberryFrog, an ad agency renowned for movement marketing, to create the ‘Think and Ask’ campaign, prodding viewers to ask questions such as ‘Why aren’t there new roads even though there are new cars?’ and ‘Why are the ice caps melting and mangroves disappearing?’

Brand guru Harish Bijoor says that to create a significant following, Mahindra Reva needs a powerful evangelist; he suggests Anand Mahindra, chairman and managing director, Mahindra Group, who has a Twitter following of over 8 lakh. But going out on a limb can prove counter-productive too. People still remember how Ratan Tata evangelised the Nano—and the subsequent subdued reception to the car.

At the heart of Maini’s dream is the heart of the E2O—the lithium-ion battery. It’s not a new idea by any stretch—variants of this battery power mobile phones and tablets. Li-ion batteries are far lighter than the lead-acid batteries that the Reva-i ran on, and hold a charge for longer (100 km for Li-ion compared to 60 km for lead-acid). The Li-ion batteries that Mahindra Reva uses are expensive now, but prices are expected to come down with increased demand from phone and tablet makers, as well as car makers. In the E2O, the battery doesn’t just power the car, it runs a bank of 10 computers inside the vehicle, which are responsible, among other things, for online connectivity to a central server, and telematics. The car begins to function almost like a smartphone on wheels.

Consider this. The E2O uses air-conditioning to cool its batteries, whereas hybrid cars like Chevrolet Volt use a distinct liquid-cooling system. “The E2O ventilation system turns on the AC if it is too hot, diverts air, and takes it into the battery area,” says Maini, who has applied for a patent on this. The E2O also has an inverter and compressor, which allow passengers to get full cooling even at standstill, independent of the motor. (Unlike a conventional car, there is no difference to engine performance because of an active AC.)

Then there’s a data analytics function that analyses battery usage and status, and a remote diagnostics tool that frees up battery energy for an extra 8 km or so (much like the reserve fuel supply in cars and bikes). It was, says Maini, “almost like a ‘beam me up Scotty’ concept” that took shape after long discussions with the marketing team regarding buyers who were anxious about running out of battery power on the road. The Reva R&D team developed the solution in 2009, whereby it could remotely free up reserve charge; today, this is known as ‘REVIVE’, which can be activated through a Reva app on a smartphone.

It works like this. Every E2O comes loaded with a Vodafone SIM card, which keeps the car online. The Mahindra Reva central server uses the data provided through each car’s SIM to predict problems and diagnose any trouble. The idea is to do away with the need for service centres for Mahindra Reva cars. “We can analyse the data and, before you complain, we will come and service your car. It’s figuring out issues preventively,” says Maini.

“The car is not a standalone entity anymore; it is networked and practically online,” says Hans-Kurt Lubberstedt, vice president, Ansys, in Hong Kong, which does simulation work for automotive clients such as GM for its Volt electric vehicle project. “So, the auto sector’s problems are new, like how to optimise an electric motor or manage power consumption against torque. All this has already been solved on a different scale and conditions in the electronics industry.”

The Vodafone service platform gives the central team at Mahindra Reva access to all data about the cars; from the time of purchase, each vehicle’s data is clocked on a Mahindra IT centre server in Mumbai with a backup facility in Chennai. The E2O app, based on the telematics in the car, allows users to plan routes, send text alerts (when battery charge drops), and even turn on the air-conditioning before the car is unlocked. “You don’t see these features in other vehicles at this price point, at least not in India,” says Goenka, justifying the relatively steep price of Rs 5.7 lakh to Rs 7.7 lakh.

The high price (it’s priced like a premium hatchback) could be a deterrent to the car really catching on. “It is the second car of the guy who owns a premium vehicle,” says Bijoor. He paints a picture of the buyer: a young owner of the petrol variant of a Mercedes, Audi or BMW, who can also afford a clean-technology car to keep his green conscience clear. But that defeats the purpose of an electric vehicle, which is, after all, expected to bring down pollution levels and provide a sustainable transport option.

That’s one reason car companies elsewhere in the world are looking at hybrids. “The general consensus is that hybrids as a whole will pick up more than pure electric vehicles,” says Pandit of KPIT Cummins. Hybrids like Prius are picking up more because people still have (kilometre) range anxiety in electric cars. “People are looking for anything that can give savings or energy substitution without range anxiety. This is what hybrids are all about,” he says. Hybrids haven’t really caught on in India yet, since available models and marques are too expensive for the average Indian buyer.

Other players in the field are looking beyond electric or hybrids. Tata Motors, for one, is promoting R&D in the area of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, where cars can run on compressed hydrogen fed into a fuel cell stack that produces electricity to power the vehicle.

For electric vehicles to become popular, government subsidies are necessary to keep prices low. “Without government incentives, you can get a base-level Maruti Ertiga at the same price. That is the price point that the Mahindras have acknowledged they will struggle with,” says Pandit. The examples that are repeated often by proponents of government subsidies are those of Maruti Suzuki in India in the early ’80s, and Tesla in the U.S. today. “The business rationale to develop electric vehicles may not make sense today. But the case was similar for small cars in India, which took years to innovate before firms could drive down costs,” says Abdul Majeed, automotive leader at consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers India.

But there are voices now being heard against subsidies for electric vehicles. “While Tesla has got out a new model [S Class], the business model has been strongly linked with the large incentive programmes,” says V. Sumantran, executive vice-chairman of Hinduja Automotive that runs Ashok Leyland. The truck maker is developing an electric variant of Dost, a light truck it designed with Nissan. “If governments in the developed world get more austere, the programmes could come under difficulty.”

Mahindra Reva has been lobbying for subsidies; so far, only Delhi offers a 29% subsidy for those buying an electric vehicle. In other states, private companies encourage employees to go green, but the cost of the vehicle is not reduced. The Mahindra strategy to get around the lack of subsidies is to pitch electric vehicles as a viable mass-transportation solution.

Goenka has already asked Maini’s team to apply the Reva electric vehicle technology in Mahindra’s light trucks, Gio and Maxximo. The team is also working on testing the Reva technology in Mahindra’s sedan, Verito (earlier the Logan under the Renault joint venture). The Reva electric vehicle technologies are capable of even going into autorickshaws, which are made by companies such as TVS and Bajaj Auto.

“Electrification today can work for two-wheelers, three-wheelers, for a minibus, or even a large bus,” says Maini, who is also chairman of the Personal Transportation Council of the World Economic Forum. “It is probably not ideal to go from one city to another, but it can fit 90% of urban transportation needs today. You can charge vehicles in an hour, going down to 30 minutes.”

Maini and Goenka visualise a scenario in India that’s already playing out in Europe. Paris has a network of 1,750 electric cars that are part of the Autolib car-sharing programme. Italian companies Bolloré and Pininfarina have allied to create and provide the cars (BlueCar) and charging stations (see graphic). Apart from the pickup points near Metro stations, the business model entails opportunities in car-booking facilities, driving, and so on. Similarly, in Brazil, the Rio de Janeiro local government, Nissan, and Petrobras Distribuidora introduced two electric Nissan LEAF taxis, which will go up to 15 by the year end. Petrobras service stations are providing the battery charging facilities.

“The idea is to provide the highest level of mobility and convenience for people with the least amount of city resources such as parking spaces and fuel,” says Ryan Chin of the MIT Media Lab. His research projects include CityCar, a two-seater electric car that will, in 2014, have applications like a self-driven rental service fleet of 1,000 electric cars in Berlin and, perhaps, Barcelona.

“You can have a complete system: mobility in the city is not accomplished by just cars. Combine cycling with walking and an electric cab, or walking with a subway or cycling to provide options based on energy use, time taken, and so on. You don’t need to own a car—it is a shared approach. Anyone who needs to go anywhere should have multiple choices to customise each trip,” Chin explains. At the product level, to address parking space woes, the MIT Media Lab’s electric CityCar actually folds and takes less space.

If the E2O in a redesigned version catches on as a last-mile connectivity aid to mass transport like bus systems and the Metro, it will help build volumes that in turn could lower costs. The Reva plant in Bangalore has a capacity for 30,000 units per annum. “We certainly see a day when you would have many electric vehicles available for senior people who get out of the Metro, and board an electric taxi to go a distance of 2 km to 5 km,” Goenka says.

A city with 5,000 electric cars on the road and a few plug-in buses will definitely result in lower carbon emissions. However, some scientists and academicians say that 67% of electricity in India is generated using coal, gases, and oil.

“Fossil fuels are still being burned at the generation stage,” says L. Umanand, principal research scientist in the areas of electric vehicle drives and power conversion at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. “To lower emissions through mobility, you should travel less and less. There is no other solution,” he adds, only half joking.

Goenka though, says he’s done the math in terms of electricity consumption: About 100,000 electric cars will need an increase of power generation capacity by 25MW. “That’s it—25MW is 0.5% of installed capacity,” he says, adding that one electric car consumes as much energy as an additional air-conditioner at home. But then, there’s another Maini brainchild—solar chargers.

Back in 2009, his team designed two variants of charging points that use photovoltaic solar panels. “A 3 metre-by-3 metre solar panel can give up to 15,000 km of free energy in a year,” says Maini, referring to his Sun2Car feature. The smaller-sized solar-powered charger is priced at just over Rs 1 lakh, while an elegant petal-shaped variant is above Rs 6 lakh.

The solar energy innovations could prove the game changer for Mahindra E2O to become a sustainable social vehicle of change in off-grid networks, and pave the way for myriad small businesses. It is the electric possibility that may evoke the most interest among government agencies and the ministry for natural and renewable energy.

Close to a third of Indian households live in areas with no access to power transmission grids. People in these off-grid households depend on kerosene as an energy source. To redress this, social enterprises like Solar Electric Light Company (SELCO) in Bangalore have, since the ’90s, developed an array of electric lighting and appliances such as water heaters, cooking stoves, and inverter systems. These run on solar energy generated by photovoltaic panels and equipment installed on houseroofs. SELCO is lowering carbon emissions, thanks to solar-powered applications that reduce dependence on kerosene. What if the Mahindra E2O supplied energy to solar-powered, off-grid households on a need basis at night?

Maini looks at the Reva as an energy source on wheels. After all, the electric car stores energy in its set of 48V Li-ion batteries. These can be recharged using solar panel-mounted points in about eight hours (opposed to five hours from an electrical connection in an on-grid network). The E2O has already demonstrated the capability of running a living room with appliances on its batteries: the recently launched Car2Home feature.

The problem, points out Ashok Das, a clean technologies consultant in Bangalore, is: “Even for SELCO, funding and financing have been the main barriers. Who can afford the electric car?” That’s where incentives can help.

With additional electronics, one E2O can power another E2O. It will be possible to have charging stations on wheels. This can be a business by itself, to complement charging points. Today, Bangalore has 100 charging points at malls, among other city locations. “The network enables you to access energy, and a host of other things which a [car] manufacturer alone cannot do,” says Maini.

All this can spawn myriad business models. For one, social entrepreneurs could use the E2O to do what SELCO has done so well: power homes on a roaming basis. This would entail a group of buyers investing in the car priced at over Rs 7 lakh, and the solar-powered charging point at Rs 1.5 lakh. Then, discover off-grid markets to serve and literally empower.

Two, in states that are gradually embracing the idea of ‘smart grids’ (the application of digital processing and communications to the power grid), E2O owners could put surplus solar energy into the local grid to make an extra buck. “When our grids are geared with two-way metering, this will be possible,” says Pavan Sachdeva, Mahindra Reva’s general manager for sales and marketing.

Three, the E2O could spark off businesses that are solely focussed on charging other electric cars, or battery financing—all of this is essentially built on mobility solutions infrastructure. As people discover more uses for the Reva brand of energy on wheels, the Reva community will begin to truly grow. “As people start to see the network, a completely new business model will emerge,” says Maini.

“There will be unique solutions required for particular markets,” he adds. Mahindra Reva already has an ‘infrastructure business’ devoted to recommending and executing the combination of product, technology, infrastructure, and financing to provide specific solutions to local needs.

Of course, there’s every chance that it’s too early for electric vehicles in India; the infrastructure is simply not geared towards providing the charging points, and smart grids are still in the nascent stage. Maini’s magnificent dream of the cult of Reva may never take off; but by creating the platform for electric vehicles in India, he could well be creating the foundation of a new transportation model.

Steve Jobs, the man responsible for the cult of Apple, once said: “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” Maini is showing Indians what they didn’t know they wanted.