Friday, April 13, 2012
By Manoj Kumawat
Mahindra & Mahindra to introduce a hybrid car by 2015!
At present, Toyota Prius is the only available hybrid car in the Indian market, but by 2015 Indian auto-market might witness launch of another hybrid car developed by Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M). Auto-giant, Tata Motors earlier unveiled a diesel hybrid car at Auto Expo Delhi 2012, which was a diesel hybrid prototype of Tata Manza. Mahindra too has been testing the hybrid versions of Scorpio, but it is not yet confirmed as to which product, the car maker would introduce the hybrid concept.
See More Auto Expo Pictures
M&M is one of the prominent car makers on the domestic shores and few years back, it acquired Reva, an Indian electric car manufacturer. You can expect M&M to take some of the technological advantages from its subsidiary EV brand, REVA in developing its debut hybrid car. It is also reported that Mahindra-Reva would introduce Reva NXR electric small car with four seater capacity mid of 2012. This EV would feature the range of around 160 kilometers with the top speed of more than 100 km/h. Increased drivability in a single charge and great speed of over 100 km/h would enable this EV to stand in competition with other petrol inline hatchbacks in India. This EV is anticipated to be catered in two variants, i.e. one variant with conventional lead acid batteries (entry level variant) and the other variant with lithium ion batteries (top end variant).
See More Auto Expo Images
Well, it would be interesting to see what technique M&M follows to manufacture its debut hybrid car. With the changing trend towards hybrid products, more and more car and motorcycle manufacturers across the globe have showcased the range of series hybrids. The series hybrid cars such as Tata Megapixel and Chevrolet Volt have got the internal combustion engine that acts as a generator to charge the battery stack. Mahindra XUV 500 and Mahindra Xylo are its popular products and on the basis of bigger Xylo the company is getting ready to come up with Mahindra Mini Xylo soon.
