GM and Reva Part Ways, Volt to Sell in India

In under a year after American manufacturer GM announced it has formed a partnership with Indian Reva Electric Car Company, a break-up between the two is imminent as the result of Mahindra & Mahindra buying the majority stake in the latter.

GM announced it will no longer develop an electric version of the Chevrolet Spark, called eSpark, with the now former Indian partner. The American carmaker plans to offer instead the upcoming Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid in India starting later this year. The plan to build an Indian electric vehicle has been dropped for the moment.

“Now with Reva changing its ownership we saw no particular value in doing this experiment,” Karl Slym, president and managing director of GM India told officialwire.com. “We plan to look within the General Motors portfolio for alternate technology vehicles.'

According to the carmaker and analysts alike, the recent decision means nothing in terms of growth plans in India.

“This shouldn’t impact the company in India as electric car sales in large numbers are still a decade away. They can soon find another way,” Deepesh Rathore, IHS Global Insight analyst told livemint.com.

As for Reva, the 55.2 percent equity acquired by Mahindra will translate into Reva's EV technology being adapted for the Mahindra Maxximo minitruck and several other vehicles in the near future.

Reva is at this time one of the biggest EV manufacturers, with a fleet of 3,500 units deployed in some 24 countries across the world, The company recently presented its next generation EVs, the NXR and the NXG.