Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Aug 24, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Aug 24, 2005 |
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Corporate
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Performance Marketing - Trends Rising fuel prices work well for Reva sales Anjali Prayag
Bangalore , Aug. 23 ISSUES such as VAT and lack of subsidies notwithstanding, sales of Reva cars in the country has risen by nearly 25 per cent in the last four months. "Rising fuel prices has worked well for us," said Mr Chetan Kumaar Maini, Deputy Chairman and CTO, Reva Electric Car Co. Coupled with this is a steadily growing awareness and acceptance among consumers for electric cars, he told Business Line. The company has reported sales of about 1,100 cars as of March 31, 2005, and expects to sell 1,500-2,000 cars in the next 12 months. Reva has an installed capacity to roll out 6,000 cars per year. Mr Maini said that the year 2006 would be a critical year for the company, as it would get into an expansion phase within its installed capacity. Commenting on fresh funding, he said that the company is "in advanced stages of talks for a $15-million funding" and expects to firm it up by mid-September. Meanwhile, Reva is also putting together a brand-building exercise for the domestic market and plans to launch an awareness programme in November this year. "We've realised that most of our sales come from referrals. For most of our customers this is the second car and 50 per cent of our customers are women. Keeping all this in mind, we are working on a promotion programme on what's going to appeal to them," he said. The company is also launching a left-hand-drive vehicle for its export markets in the next three months. Currently, 250 cars have been sold in London and the company hopes to export another 25 in the next quarter. Reva is also being test-marketed in Japan, Norway, Sri Lanka, the US, Switzerland, Greece, Italy and Malta. The company is also exploring the possibility of developing hydrogen fuel cell cars. It has tied up with Hydrogenics Corp, a Canadian firm for the purpose. While Reva will use its electric vehicle technology to develop hydrogen fuel cell cars, the latter will supply the fuel cell stacks. This is for a pilot project by Indian Oil Corporation.
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