Congratulations to Chetan Maini, the founder of Reva Electric car Company (now Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles) for winning The Economist's 2011 Energy and Environment Innovation award, to be made at its forthcoming Innovation Awards ceremony, which will be held on October 20th 2011 at the Science Museum in London.
Chetan is my former colleague with whom I collaborated for 8 years and is one of the true pioneers of EVs. His interest in electric cars can be traced back to his childhood, when he built remote-controlled toy cars. While a student at the University of Michigan in the United States, he took part in the General Motors Sun Race in 1990. The solar-powered car his team built won the contest and deepened his interest in alternative-energy vehicles. He thought electric cars, in particular, held great potential.
In 1994 he co-founded the Reva Electric Car Company (RECC), the first firm to build electric cars in India. Today he serves as chief strategy and technology officer of Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles, the joint venture formed in May 2011 after the Mahindra Group of India acquired RECC from the Maini Group.
RECC’s inaugural model, the REVA, was introduced in 2001. REVAs are very small (just 8.6 feet long, 4.3 feet wide and 4.1 feet high) but colourful − consumers can specify their own colour schemes. Around 4,000 of the cars have been sold in more than 20 countries, though most sales have been in Bangalore and London, the latter under the G-Wiz brand. The car costs around $13,000 today.
Commenting on the award decision by a panel of independent judges Tom Standage, Digital Editor at The Economist, said: “Mr Maini’s success reminds us that electric cars need not be expensive, and that developed countries do not have a monopoly on innovation. Indeed, India has emerged as the champion of ‘frugal innovation’, cutting costs to make new technologies more widely available.”
Commenting on the award decision by a panel of independent judges Tom Standage, Digital Editor at The Economist, said: “Mr Maini’s success reminds us that electric cars need not be expensive, and that developed countries do not have a monopoly on innovation. Indeed, India has emerged as the champion of ‘frugal innovation’, cutting costs to make new technologies more widely available.”
