For the first time in my existence at MouthShut.com have I come to a category where I’m the first person to write a review on it. So that makes it a slightly special occasion for me. This review, however, is a bit more special as well. For the second time I’m writing this for somebody. That persons did not ask me to do so, of course, it is me who am writing voluntarily.
I dedicate this review to all of you members at MouthShut who have been very nice to me by reading and rating my reviews and commenting on them with abandon! You are my inspiration for writing! You’re wonderful people and I hope I can become as wonderful as you some day. We wait till then?
Among all the cars available in the Indian market, Reva is certainly the most unique for more than just one reason. The first reason is that it is the only two-seater car in the indegenously developed cars available here. The second, more important and prominent peculiarity of this vehicle, is that Reva is driven by an electric motor. So the only real emmissions this vehicle makes is that of noise and nothing else. However, I promise you even the noise it makes can be heard if other vehicles aren’t anywhere nearby. Allow me, however, to review the car in my regular style.
Appearance
Reva is, as I said before, peculiar because of its size. It is, by far, the smallest car on Indian roads which is a very important thing to note here. To describe this in technical terms, Reva is a twin-tandem-seater hatchback (if I hadn’t called it hatchback, you’d have thought I’m describing an aircraft). If you look at Reva from the front, it’s got two protruding headlights and a flatish bonet in the front. The height of the bonet compared with the height of the windscreen and the car top give it a net effect of looking like the French Cars they show on cartoons, you know, the typical small bonet tall roof classy ones! Yes, Reva does look very prominently French. It’s Madame Reva, if I daresay.
The from the side view, it looks more like a sidecar to a Bullet-500 than an independent car because of its length. The Reva’s hatchback is flat as well which gives it a French look even from the side. If you want to describe the car from the side, it’s more like a flat bonet, a tall car and a flat back. If you’ve ever watched cartoons like Powerpuff Girls, then you’d appreciate what I mean by a ’’French-look’’.
From the back if you look at it, it doesn’t look anything peculiar at all. It just looks prominently flat.
So overall, in the appearance category, Reva is a very peculiar looking car, ’’Madame Reva’’ as I’ve come to call it nowadays. I’ve never actualy met a French woman who is also not good looking. I find French one of the most beautiful people on this earth, after Indians of course, and so I can’t call Reva anything other than good-looking. It scores 9 out of 10 if you ask me because it’s flat from the back.
The last sentence was an attempt at humor and that alone.
Performance and Safety Measures
Reva is run by an electric motor and I’d like to state here I’m unaware of the technical specifications of the motor. So it’s obvious, the car has been designed to be an economy vehicle and an eco-friendly vehicle. You can’t normaly equate economy and eco-friendliness with firebreathing performance and in the case of Reva it’s certainly not a correct equation. Reva boosts of a modest pick-up and a modest top speed of 50 kilometers to an hour. Of course, in our kind of traffic, fifty kilometers an hour is not a modest speed at all. In fact that is a foolish speed to have in indisciplined traffic as ours. So Reva’s performance in a sense compel you to be a cautious driver. You can’t wreck this car too bad.
Even if you do wreck it in the front, it has a very well built crumple-zone which absorbs the shock well enough to keep the driver safe from being crushed between his seat and the crumpling bonet. If you crash into a stationary object, like a tree or a light-post, then you’re very likely of coming out unhurt. If you dash against a speeding car, however, God be with you.
If something dashes from the side, it’s a dicy situation. Remember, this car is not only short in length but also very narrow, not too broad. So the door panels are almost of the same thickness everwhere which is very small in itself. But the doors come with a crumple zone of their own. I couldn’t sample this one, thanks to the grace of God (I sampled the front crumple zon, he-he), but since the front one worked very well, I can assume the side ones do work as well. (Hope to God I don’t ever need them).
Fuel Efficiency
I have no idea what to write here, to be frank. This car doesn’t run on any particulate fuel, like petrol or deisel or something like that. It runs on electricity. So it’s mineral-fuel efficiency is infinite.
In one charge, the car goes sixty kilometers. I’d almost written 60 to a litre, but you’d have asked, a litre of what?! It needs to be charged overnight, I think, but that’s not a verified figure as well. I aplogize for the lack of such information. All in know is that Reva owners spend 900 Indian rupees a month on charging their cars if they do it everyday. Once charged, the battery runs down after 48 hours or so, so you’ve to charge it after every two days even if you don’t use it. The car does not charge itself as it runs, so it will shut down after 60.
Mind you, however, that frequent speed alteration consumes more battery power. So for an efficient running, it is advised that the driver mantains a consant speed and avoids speeding up to much or breaking too often. So keep at about 30 kilometers to an hour.
All in all
All in all, Reva is a worthwhile buy only if
a) you are a city commuter and your city isn’t the collosal madness called Mumbai or likenesses of it and
b) if you aren’t using your car for anything apart from office-to-home and home-to-office.
It’s good, therefore, for housewives who need to use the car for things like dropping children to school and bringing them back, going to the market (the car will make that happen everyday) or going out to kitty parties. The car’ll shut down at the end of this, however.
It’s a good car if your interests lie in within-city short commutes. It’s a heaven-like feeling however to be in this car with one another passenger in crowded places because you can park this biscuit-sized car easily (more easily than others that is) and weave out of jams with that much more ease.