Frankfurt Preview: Reva to show next-gen EVs, remote wireless charging?
by Sam Abuelsamid on Sep 8th 2009 at 7:58AM 
Reva, the Indian company that builds Jeremy Clarkson's favorite car, the G-Wiz, is preparing for its second act next week at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The company will unveil two new upcoming models and a new charging technology. The first of the new models is the NXR, and it is billed as a four seat hatchback "family car." Judging from the image above, it will have to be a very small family since the NXR doesn't look any bigger than the "four seat" G-Wiz.
The second model is a two seat removable roof sportster called the NXG. The NXR is due to launch in various world markets for 2010 while the NXG should arrive a year later.
The new technology that Reva will announce is called REVive. The company claims that this will address range anxiety by allowing customers to call or text Reva for "instant remote recharge." We're not sure how this will work, but given the trouble that AT&T has had just sending picture messages to iPhones, we'll be curious to see how Reva manages to send enough electrons to keep a car going without a plug. Let's just say we're not holding our breath on this one. Check out the complete press release after the jump, and thanks to throwback for the tip!
[Source: Reva]
PRESS RELEASE:
Reva Launching Two New Cars at Frankfurt
LONDON, September 7/PRNewswire/ -- At midday on Wednesday 16th September 2009 Reva Electric Car Company (REVA) will be unveiling two new M1 classified electric cars at the 63rd Frankfurt International Motor Show (IAA).
The REVA NXR is a four-seat, three-door hatchback family car suitable for urban driving that can be ordered at the show, with production scheduled to commence at the beginning of 2010.
The showcar, REVA's model for 2011, is the REVA NXG; a sporty two-seater with a targa roof that was designed by Dilip Chhabria of the internationally renowned automotive design company DC Design.
Another world-first for REVA at The IAA is the launch of REVive, a technology unique to REVA that addresses 'range anxiety' and acts like an invisible reserve fuel tank. The customer just has to telephone or SMS REVA for an instant remote recharge should they run out of charge. Both the REVA NXR and the REVA NXG will feature the REVive telematics technology. Further technology and pricing announcements will be made at the IAA.
REVA's new website, Revaglobal.com, will go live at the time of the vehicle launches in Frankfurt and customers can register on the priority list for the new cars on-line.
REVA is the brand of the Reva Electric Car Company, a Bangalore-based company formed as a joint venture between Maini Group of India and AEV LLC of California and backed by US investors Global Environment Fund and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
Today, REVA is selling, or being test marketed, in 24 countries worldwide and has the largest deployed fleet of electric cars on the market with over 3,000 EVs on the road and more than 70 million kilometres of user experience.
The company is building a new ultra low carbon vehicle assembly plant in Bangalore, with a capacity of 30,000 units per annum, to accommodate increased production and is planning to introduce even more measures to ensue that it has the cleanest and greenest production.
REVA Hall 8, Stand D38
63rd Frankfurt International Motor Show (Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung), 15 -27 September 2009.
Press days: 15th and 16th September
Open to the public 17th to 27th September.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
tankd0g 8:06AM (9/08/2009)
Please enter your credit car number and press the # sign to access your auxiliary battery.
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Eyad 8:42AM (9/08/2009)
took the words right outta my mouth
patandrandy 2:13PM (9/11/2009)
Surely this is some kind of battery delivery service. good luck with that concept.
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Joe K. 10:10AM (9/08/2009)
Thank you for calling "Dial-A-Lightning-Bolt" Please keep all incendiaries 200 feet away from the vehicle during charging.
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Dpulse 10:38AM (9/08/2009)
Some scientist named Tesla got this remote electric stuff to work decades ago, and now a bunch of up starts are touting it as if this **** is new. Ran across a lamp on Dvice that is powered remotely. No cords, no batteries. Even being tested for cell phones.
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mikhalian 10:50AM (9/08/2009)
It's possible that it's using this tech: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiTricity
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Paul Allen 12:03PM (9/08/2009)
Here's how it will work (and remember, you heard it here first):
Forget about "beaming" electricity to the car. Never happen, period, the end.
To ensure long battery life, electric cars are very kind to the batteries. In other words, the system is designed so that you cannot fully discharge the batteries, because that significantly reduces the batteries' life.
But, if you do it occasionally, it's probably ok.
So, if you are stuck in the boonies with batteries that are low enough that the car's system shuts off the power, in an emergency, you can call/text/email the company or dealer and they can send a signal to the car, allowing it to discharge the batteries more than normal.
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ds 1:06PM (9/08/2009)
I'm just imagining sitting at a light with a dead battery, sending a short text message to Reva, when, moments later, a Reva-badged ambulance races up and defibrillates the car.
"You're gonna make it home. CLEAR!"
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P.V. 6:54PM (9/08/2009)
I've seen and ridden in the current REVA in India. Frankly, they work but they are terrible as cars.
I hope this is some improvement upon that.
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Bikenstein 4:24AM (9/09/2009)
Hopefully... this will not be like the Bluetooth V1.0!
I cant figure out how can this contraption be called a "four seater", unless the rear seat is meant for 6yr old kids without legs...
Reva was quite heavy and still doesnt have a great range for the rating+so many batteries... I hope they have come up with better charging/storage systems.
When the Reva was low on charge, the driver, i guess, had an option to drive in "E" mode for some 10kms more... while doing this, if its dawn/dark, he has a choice between using his headlamps for 280seconds/honk for 17 times or 145sec, whichever is shorter!
Good work, but... no thanks, i'l take a tram home unless Reva plans to rope in some engineers from Brabus who can squeeze more juice out of this EV... This wud be the best solution for the bumper-to-bumper city traffic, and for a short sprint to the grocery shop!
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revalutionary 6:53AM (9/09/2009)
REVive is a telematics solution we developed in response to research that told us that some people would not buy an electric car because they were worried about running out of electricity. When a customer SMS or calls us, our operator accesses the car via the telematics solution and enables a few extra km of charge so that the driver can continue on their way and find a socket for recharging. The amount of charge will vary depending upon the ambient temperature, state of the battery and other factors. Even though in reality our customers no more run out of electricity than they do petrol, we though this was a useful way to addresss this 'range anxiety'.
We hope you like the NXR and the NXG!
Best wihes
Keith Johnston
President, European Operations
Reva Electric Car Company
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kj 6:57AM (9/09/2009)
By the way, the NXR really does seat four adults.
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Steve Hollman 2:22AM (9/21/2009)
Hi Guys
Enabling you to combat "range anxiety", access the hidden reserve in the battery "safely" without affecting your battery life
Check it out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOIKbTTxiLg
Regards
Steve Hollman
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Rahul 6:39AM (9/21/2009)
The new cars from REVA will be much better than the existing ones. These cars are designed keeping in mind the need of the people outside India.
http://www.carazoo.com/
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