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Global Reach
motive components and subassemblies manufacturer Maini Group
and AEV LLC of Irwindale, California, a holder of thermoelectric
power generation and other electric vehicle-related patents. A key
figure in the RECC story is deputy chairman and CTO Chetan
Kumar Maini, who holds degrees in mechanical engineering from
the University of Michigan and Stanford.
RECC began with an initial $20 million from Maini, AEV, ICICI Bank,
the Government of India Technology Development Board, the
Karnataka State Finance Corp., and the World Bank’s International
Finance Corp. From 1994–2003, it developed six generations of the
Reva at a greenfield manufacturing plant at the Bommasandhra
Industrial Estate in Bangalore. The first commercial Reva rolled off
the factory line in May 2001. Initial power generation technology
came from AEV, but Maini designed over 1,000 parts and made
improvements in drive train and battery technology, making the
Reva 95% indigenous to India.
The original Reva plant could produce 6,000 cars a year. Nearly
all of the early financing went into prototype design, leaving an
ambitious seven-city dealer network with little marketing support.
A 1-lakh ($2,000) per car government subsidy that RECC
counted on was eliminated in 2001, and $15 million in private
equity funding envisioned in the initial business plan failed to
materialize. By 2006, although European sales were showing
promise, Reva had scaled back sales to Bangalore and
Ahmedabad and had stopped advertising.
Reva was revived in December 2006 with a $20 million capital infusion
from Silicon Valley venture firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson
(DFJ) and the Global Environment Fund, a VC investor in cleantech
and emerging markets. DFJ managing director Tim Draper
and GEF president H. Jeffrey Leonard have taken seats on
RECC’s board. In 2008, sales expanded into Delhi, where the municipal
government has begun offering incentive subsidies on the
base price, the tax and license charges, and the VAT for electric
vehicles. The Bangalore plant is being expanded to an installed
capacity of 30,000 cars. Five new prototype models are ready to
go into production, and RECC is exploring synergies with three
other DFJ-funded companies: energy storage device company
Deeya Energy, PV cell maker Konarka Technologies, and Silicon
Valley electric sports car manufacturer Tesla Motors.
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