Mahindra’s Electric-cum-Solar-Powered ‘e2o’ Gearing Up For Launch!

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.’s  shall be launching an inexpensive solar-powered cum electric four-seater in the Indian market by end of January 2013, the company stated. With the conventional fuel prices riding a new high, the company believes that this new alternative-energy variant should easily find a strong customer base early on.

The car was developed in the company’s new Bangaluru plant. Named e2o (pronounced ee-to-oh), this car derives power from Lithium ion batteries which allow almost 120-160 km long ride per overnight charge in a 240V electric socket. It’s the only Indian four-seating electric car as of now. It even incorporates a futuristic technology called ‘Sun2Car’, which lets it suck power from the sun as well. The name ‘e20’ follows the other Mahindra car lineage names ending in -o (Bolero, Genio, Gio, Scorpio, Xylo). While ‘e’ represents the sun, ‘o’ represents oxygen, added the company. It substitutes the company’s other electric vehicle- the two-seating REVAi. Chetan Maini, Founder and Chief of Strategy of Mahindra’s Electric Car Unit stated that REVAi’s production has almost been terminated and all their present focus lies with e2o now. The price of e20 has not been disclosed yet, but sources bracket the costs around INR 5 lakh/- for the Lithium-ion battery version (max. 160km/charge), and INR 4 lakh/- for the lead-acid battery base version(max 80km/charge). The car even enjoys a 15 minute quick-charge which renders it an additional 25km range.