Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles Pvt Ltd has, in an official communication has announced that they have reduced the price of their automatic electric vehicle e2o thanks to the benefits offered by the central government’s FAME scheme. The e2o now costs Rs 4.79 lakhs (On road Delhi) in addition to a fixed energy fee of Rs 2,999 per month for 5 years or 50,000 km, which as per the company is a reduction of 16 per cent over the old price.
16 percent means about a slash of Rs 75,000 and do notice that the price listed here is the on-road price in Delhi and not the ex-showroom, and includes all the other taxes etc.
FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles) scheme will also help facilitate special focus on investment in research and development. A major problem of using electric vehicles in India is that we do not have a proper charging infrastructure.
The aegis of FAME shall also include the process of making charging infrastructure more accessible and also expand its network. A rise in publicly available charging point is thus expected. Mahindra Reva has been serious about charging infrastructure and has already set up 300 such charging points across the country.
The air quality in cities in the country is already under a lot of scrutiny by environmental agencies and a move like this is definitely welcome. Instead of regular sources of electricity, we have to invest in more non-polluting and safe sources of power such as solar. Otherwise it is just shifting the problem from one backyard to another.
