Electric Chevy Spark Likely by Year's End, With Sales in India Slated for Early 2011
By Scott Doggett April 8, 2010
An all-electric prototype of the Chevrolet Spark, the gas-powered version of which went on sale outside the U.S. earlier this year and is slated to come to America in 2011, should be ready in India by the end of this year.
That according to a report today by the subscription service Just-Auto. The zero-emissions battery-electric vehicle is being jointly developed by Indian EV automaker Reva and the Indian subsidiary of General Motors.
"The GM project is on schedule and we are likely to be ready with a pilot version of the e-Spark by the end of 2010," Reva deputy chairman Chetan Maini said on the sidelines of the All India Management Association awards in New Delhi.
The e-Spark is GM's bold move into the Indian battery-electric vehicle segment and will be the first four-door passenger electric vehicle sold there. The commercial launch is scheduled for early next year. There's no word yet on when the e-Spark might be available in North America.
"The model likely will be launched in the Indian market in the first quarter of 2011," Maini said, adding it would be manufactured at GM's Talegaon factory in Pune (its second, opened in 2008).
Asked about initial capacity allocated by GM for the Spark EV, Maini said: "GM would manufacture 5,000 units annually of e-Spark initially."
Reva itself is building a new 30,000-vehicles-a-year plant at Bommasandra in Bangalore scheduled to commence operations by the end of this year.
"We are planning to manufacture about 5,000 to 7,000 units initially," Maini disclosed.
Reva showed two new self-developed EVs called the NXR and NXG at the Frankfurt motor show last year.
"NXR would likely hit the Indian market at the end of 2010, while NXG will be launched sometime in 2011," Maini said.
Reva launched its first electric cars in 1991 and has sold about 3,500 vehicles to date, mostly in Bangalore with initial exports to the U.K.
Its EVs are now sold in over 20 countries, including Europe and Asia, Central and South America.
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