All you need to know: 2013 Mahindra Reva e2o

While you might have read our news report about the Mahindra Reva e2o, here are couple of facts that might interest you, especially if you're planning to adopt the new green lifestyle. Electric cars have always been seen as slightly less practical and not as well engineered as their petrol guzzling siblings. Mahindra e2o promises to change the notion.

Lets talk about the practicality first. It uses a 48-volt Lithium ion battery that gives it an overall range of 100km. A full charge takes about 5 hours via a regular 15-ampere power socket, which is about 20km per hour of charging. You can also utilise solar energy and thus spend nothing on fuel, other than the one-time investment you make in the car and the solar panel. There's a certain amount of reserve charge in the car, which can be used in emergency. An additional charge (good enough to run 8-9km) can be activated remotely. 

Although the car has two doors, it can seat four. It comes equipped with features like air-conditioning and a 6.2-inch wide touchscreen infotainment system. Also, you can use your phone to lock, unlock the car, switch on the air-conditioning etc. It comes equipped with a proper navigation system too, with which you can plan your trips, check traffic updates etc. A turning radius of 3.9 meters and things like Hill-Hold add to the practicality quotient of the e2o. Hill Hold is the wizardry that helps the car tackle inclines without going backwards. Powering the car is a 3 phase induction motor that makes an equivalent of 26PS of power and 53Nm of torque. 

Available in two variants, T0 and T2, the e2o costs Rs 5.96 lakh for the former and Rs 6.25 lakh for the latter. Extras on the T2 include a reverse parking camera and the infotainment system. The car is targeted at urban customers and will be available across 8 cities in the first phase. And in case you already own a Reva and now want the e2o, you can contact Mahindra First Choice for the exchange schemes. Mahindra says a sales figure of around 400-500 cars a month in India is what they'll consider to be good. The company also plans to send the car to Europe sometime early next year.