REVA Solar Electric Car- India Climate Solutions Road Tour

One aspect in which the developing world is pulling ahead is in adopting new renewable technologies. In some cases, countries like India are better suited to translate these new technologies into consumer goods. The reasons for this are quite simple- resources are in short supply and the market must adapt to suit the needs of the people. So, while Toyota and GM are still struggling to manufature road-ready electric cars that the American and European markets can adopt, the REVA Electric Cars company in India has been putting out electric cars on the road since 2001.

Earlier this year two American students on a Fullbright scholarship to India made a well-publicized tour of the country in electric cars from REVA fitted with solar panels to increase their efficiency. The team covered a total of 3500 kilometers, meeting people from all walks of life and encountering local solutions that people in remote areas have come up with for their energy needs. They convinced the CEO of REVA to fit the cars with solar panels, increasing the mileage from 120 Km per charge to 150-200 Kms. Thomas Friedman, columnist with the New York Times, wrote about this Climate Solutions Road Tour and the enthusiasm of the two young activists whom he met on a trip to India. You can read more about the group and their tour here.

Here is a video of the tour being flagged-off.

REVA recently announced that a new manufacturing facility is being built according to international sustainability standards in Bangalore, India. So the good news is that the company is growing. Their cars are currently being sold all over India as well as in Britain, Spain, Greece and Norway among other countries. Israel will soon see imported REVAs in that country after a recent agreement with the Israeli company BDO-I2I .

But the question is if solar technology will eventually be incorporated directly into the cars. At the present time it is more feasible to manufacture plug-in electric cars, but it seems that the kind of efficiency boost that added solar panels could provide can make the car more appealing to suburban drivers and inner city transportation fleets. Localized solar generation is in the future for Indian energy production over the next decade. At current efficiency levels, solar photovoltaics are simply too inefficient to justify building them into mass-produced cars in countries like India. However, the development of more efficient and cheaper PVs could change the industry. The CEO of REVA Electric Cars, Chetan Maini, has had hands-on experience with solar cars, but the specially customized cars used on the tour will probably not be commercially available any time soon.