Chinese vehicle manufacturers have already started making ripples in India’s passenger vehicle market . Last year china’s guangzhou and india’s xenitis made a venture called global auto which is now well known for its Rock 100cc(Rs20,000). Soon this chinese presence will be felt in the 1.4million car industry. In alliance with Chennai based Bavina’s industries chinese manufacturers will debut into indian car market but in a unconventional way. Bavina will roll out an electric car in 2008 which would run 130km in a single charge and would come at price tag of around Rs2lakhs. The electric car is likely to be christened as ‘Bavina’
Bavina
The ‘power pack’ of bavina consists of six lead-acid batteries (12V/200AH each) which can be recharged 500 times. It could give a maximum speed of 55 kmph. The fully-charged bavina would run for 110 km with AC switched on and another 20 km without AC. Every charge that takes ten hours. According to S Rajasekhar,Managing Director of Bavina Industries the six lead-acid batteries in the car would last up to 65,000 km or a minimum of one-and-a-half years. The replacement cost could be around Rs 21,000. This would come down to Rs 12,000 when the company introduces a three-battery version within two years. Bavina will also host of sophiscated features like Air Conditioning, power window and centralised locking.
Initially bavina will import the electric car from china and by january 2009 it will start production of the car in chennai where bavina is setting up a plant. The four-seater steel-bodied hatch-back resembling Hyundai Santro and Daewoo Matiz would zip through Indian roads from April 14. Bavina hopes to sell 5,000 cars per year.
Bavina taxi
Bavina would also launch an ‘eco-fridendly taxi’ first in Delhi and Chennai on August 15,2008. By the end of 2009, these taxis could be seen in all the major cities such as Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Hyderabad.
Rajasekar pitches his ‘Bavina’ as “ eco-friendly, a gentle road-user (max. speed 55kph), a four-door sedan and low maintenance”.
source: photo from the Hindu