New electric vehicles coming from Tata
By Susan Wilson
Best known for the announcement that it would release a very affordable "people’s car", Tata announced that it was going to be releasing an electric version of its Indica hatchback in Norway in 2009 and in India in 2010.
In the past, Tata has mainly used existing diesel engine technology to power all of its car models. It was the first company, to release a car in India that runs on compressed air. So Tata is open to innovation and new technologies.
According to Domain-b.com, Tata will be using a two pack battery in its new electric car. Projected mileage on an 8 hour charge is 175 km-200 km (108 m to 124 m). Of course, the actual mileage will depend on the batteries that TATA chooses for its new car. Inhabitat reports that the batteries will be lithium ion. But there is no information on what company will be providing the lithium ion batteries.
Tata has also created an electric version of its sub-one ton commercial vehicle known as ACE and an electric version of its popular Nano, to be called the E-Nano.
The Nano Rs1-lahk is probably better known as the "people’s car". The diesel version of the new Nano Rs1-lahk is expected to be available this month in India. The car was originally going to be sold for the unheard of price of $2,500. Speculation is that with the cost of materials having risen sharply, Tata will be unable to meet this original price goal.
All of the new electric vehicles are part of a joint project with the Norwegian research and development firm "Miljoebil Grenland, partly owned by regional utility company Skagerak Energi and the $25-billion energy and integrated aluminium company, Norsk Hydro."
Tata currently sells cars in Italy, Spain, Nepal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Turkey. With the addition of its new electric line of cars that will be surfacing first in Norway and shortly thereafter in India, Tata is becoming a leader in the world selling affordable without the frills.
Now if we could only get a few of those $2,500 cars over here…..
via Inhabitat, Domain-b and Tata Motors
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September 17th, 2008
The supplier is most likely Canadian firm Electrovaya as I postulated here….
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/09/08/pics-tata-shows-off-electric-indica-at-siam-expo/
September 21st, 2008
Very interesting and up to date articles.This kind of informaton site is a very effective way to grant us a way to stay up to date in helping in the energy problem. Keep up the good work.This is the first time I have contacted you.Let me ,respectfully,emphasize that,to my knowledge, I have never before sumitted a comment on your contents before.
October 2nd, 2008
“It was the first company, to release a car in India that runs on compressed air.”
Unfortunately, no, this has not happened, and it’s very unclear when and if it ever will. Tata licensed the air car technology from French based MDI. They are reported to be working on integrating this compressed air powered engine into their fleet, but have suggested it may take at least another 2 years.