Chetan Maini of REVA Electric Car on How It All Started

30:07 | Kamla Bhatt | Feb 21st, 2007 10:12pm |

REVA was India’s first electric vehicle — it’s already been on the road for more than five years. We recently caught up with Chetan Maini, deputy chairman and CTO of Reva Electric Car Company.

Chetan built his first solar electric car in 1990, while he was a student at the University of Michigan. In 1994, REVA was founded in Bangalore and in 2001 India’s first electric vehicle rolled out onto the roads there.

City mobility and the goal of zero emissions were the primary reasons driving Chetan to develop the REVA. The existing model of the EEC-certified REVA is currently available in India and marketed in the U.K., Italy, Malta, Sri Lanka, Cyprus and Greece.

Recently REVA became the first Indian automobile company to receive $20 million in funding led by Draper Fisher Jurveston and Global Environment Fund. The money will be used by the car manufacturer to expand its global reach.