My first car was a CIvic EF hatch. It had vinyl seats and a farmyard four speed. It was magical and I loved it. Halfway around the world, Mahindra was performing a similar magic. Maybe likening the e20 as EFesque is a stretch, but one cannot deny the similarity of their impacts. The story of the Mahindra e2o cannot be told without first telling the story of Chetan Maini and the Reva Electric Car Company (RECC) because the e2o is not simply a car, it is the culmination of nearly two decades of Indian electric vehicle engineering, beginning long before the words “EV” or “green mobility” entered mainstream vocabulary.  Maini, a Bengaluru-born engineer who had worked at Amerigon Electric Vehicle Technologies in the United States, returned to India in the early 1990s with a singular mission: build an a!ordable, practical electric car for Indian urban life. In 1994, he co-founded RECC as a joint venture between the Maini Group of Bengaluru and Amerigon EV Technologies of the US.

The company set up its base in Bengaluru then emerging as India’s technology hub and began the painstaking work of designing a vehicle from scratch for a market that did not yet know it needed one.

The Reva was never meant to compete with petrol cars. It offered something far more radical: a small, lightweight electric car designed specifically for dense urban life, plugged into an ordinary wall socket at home.

In June 2001, RECC launched the REVA India’s first mass-produced electric car. It was a tiny, plastic-panelled micro-car with a steel space frame, eight 6V lead-acid ba”eries wired in series, and a DC motor producing just 4.8 kW. Its top speed was 65 km/h and its range roughly 80 km. By any conventional measure, it was not much of a car. By any measure of vision, it was extraordinary.

In 2004, UK importer GoinGreen began selling the Reva as the G-Wiz, and the little Indian car became an unlikely London celebrity. Its exemption from the London Congestion Charge thanks to its electric drivetrain gave it a practical financial advantage that resonated deeply in one of the world’s most expensive driving environments. By 2006, the G-Wiz was the world’s best-selling electric vehicle, and by 2008, it was Britain’s best-selling electric car of all time, with over 950 sold. The car was mocked mercilessly by Top Gear, which named it the Worst Car of 2007 and later literally blew one up on television yet people kept buying them.

In 2008, the REVA was updated into the REVAi (G-Wiz i in the UK), gaining an AC motor, higher top speed of 80 km/h, a “boost” mode, and an optional lithium-ion battery variant. A new Frankfurt Motor Show concept in 2009  the Reva NXR previewed the next chapter. That next chapter would require a powerful new partner.

Mahindra Acquires RECC — May 2010

When Mahindra & Mahindra acquired a controlling stake in RECC in May 2010, the transaction was strategically transformative for both parties. Mahindra gained a decade of real-world EV data, functioning supply chains, battery management IP, and over 30patents in areas from fast charging to telematics. RECC gained the manufacturing scale, distribution network, and capital of India’s largest SUV maker. Chetan Maini stayed on as Chief of Technology and Strategy, and later as CEO, overseeing the rebirth of the NXR concept as the production e2o. The company was renamed Mahindra Electric Mobility Limited. In 2013, Fast Company named it one of The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies.

Before the e2o existed, there was the REVA India’s first mass produced battery electric vehicle and the direct technological ancestor of everything that followed. Launched in 2001, it used a steel space frame wrapped in dent-resistant ABS plastic panels, keeping weight to an absolute minimum. Under the floor sat eight 6V lead-acid batteries wired to deliver 48V, powering a DC motor rated at a modest 4.8 kW continuous though it could surge to 13.1 kW in peak boost. The 2008 REVAi update was significant: an AC motor replaced the DC unit, improving efficiency and raising the top speed to 80 km/h. A lithium-ion battery option became available in 2009, cutting charging times and extending range. In the UK as the G-Wiz, the car found its most famous market loved for its Congestion Charge exemption, mocked by petrol-heads everywhere. The fatal 2010 London accident involving a G-Wiz highlighted the car’s fundamental safety limitation: it was classified as a quadricycle in Europe, not a car, and was exempt from mainstream crash testing.

By the time production ended in 2012, roughly 4,600 REVAi units had been sold across 26 countries. India accounted for 55% of sales, with Bengaluru alone contributing 40%. It was a niche product, but its engineering learnings battery management, regenerative braking, lightweight construction formed the bedrock of everything Mahindra built afterward.

The G-Wiz in the UK: In 2006 the G-Wiz became the world’s best-selling electric vehicle. A well-watched auto show called it the worst car ever made and blew one up on television. Both things were simultaneously true — and neither stopped Londoners from buying it.

Specifications

The Mahindra e2o launched in India in March 2013, after years of delays caused partly by government indecision over EV incentives. Originally conceived as the Reva NXR, first shown at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show, the production car was a proper step forward from the G-Wiz it replaced. It was now a four-seater, four-wheeled hatchback built to full M1 car classification standards, meaning it had to pass proper crash tests, carry airbags, and meet European ABS requirements, a significant upgrade over the quadricycle exemptions the REVAi relied upon.

The exterior was co-initiated with DC Design and refined in-house by Reva’s R&D team — modern, rounded, and genuinely car-like compared to the G-Wiz. The interior featured a 6.2-inch touchscreen infotainment system with GPS, reverse camera, and most remarkably for the era, a smartphone app that let owners lock the car and operate the air conditioning remotely. Regenerative braking, keyless entry, projector headlamps, and power windows were standard equipment. This was no longer a curiosity. It was genuinely equipped.

The powertrain used a rear-mounted 19 kW (25 hp) three-phase AC motor drawing from a 48V lithium-ion ba!ery pack, delivering a claimed range of 100–120 km and a top speed of 80–90 km/h.  Real-world range was typically 80–95 km. Mahindra invested ₹100 crore (approximately $18.5 million USD) in development and built a Bengaluru factory with 30,000-unit annual capacity though early sales were far below projections. A Premium variant in August 2014 added electric power steering and the full 120 km range claim.

To address the high upfront cost, Mahindra introduced the “Goodbye Fuel, Hello Electric” ownership programme — splitting the cost into an initial vehicle price and an ongoing battery lease (the “e2o care protection plan”), with the company retaining battery ownership and guaranteeing performance. It was an early and innovative approach to ba!ery-as-a-service, predating its widespread adoption elsewhere.

The e2o arrived in the UK in 2016, priced from £12,995 with better specs than the Indian version, including a higher top speed. Brexit and poor sales led Mahindra to withdraw from the UK market in May 2017, and the company bought back all customer cars at full price. In India, the two-door e2o was discontinued in November 2016, replaced by the larger e2o Plus.

Specifications

The e2o Plus was Mahindra’s response to the original e2o’s chief commercial weakness: its two-door body made it impractical for Indian families. Launched on 21 October 2016, the Plus was a proper five-door, four-seater hatchback the same footprint, but radically more useful for daily family errands and ride-sharing operators alike. Its front fascia carried over the e2o’s design language, ensuring visual continuity across the range. At launch, four variants were o”ered: P2, P4, P6, and P8. The P2 through P6 used the same 19 kW motor and 48V battery as the outgoing two-door e2o. The flagship P8 stepped up to a 30 kW motor running on a 72V battery pack a meaningful performance upgrade that Mahindra claimed delivered 0–60 mph acceleration in 9.5 seconds. It was priced from ₹5.46 lakh in Delhi after subsidies, making it one of the world’s cheapest four door electric cars and one of the cheapest four-door automatics in any fuel type.

The e2o Plus quickly found a commercial niche: Ola Cabs deployed 100 units in Nagpur in 2017 as part of India’s early experiment with electric taxi fleets. Corporate and government fleet operators in Bengaluru, Delhi, and other cities adopted it for last-mile mobility. The car’s total cost of ownership factoring in near-zero fuel costs, low maintenance (no oil, clutch, or conventional gearbox), and government subsidies made it genuinely competitive against entry-level petrol hatchbacks for high-mileage users. Production ended on 31 March 2019. Mahindra cited new, more stringent government safety and crash standards as a key reason for discontinuation, the e2o Plus platform, designed before India’s updated crash norms, could not be economically upgraded to comply

Specifications

The e2o NXT was unveiled at the Auto Expo 2018 as a refreshed and updated version of the e2o platform, featuring an updated exterior design, a larger touchscreen infotainment unit, and improved specifications. It represented Mahindra’s attempt to keep the compact urban EV proposition alive as the Indian EV market began to mature and competition from larger, more capable vehicles increased. The NXT’s design was more angular and assertive compared to its predecessor reviewers noted it looked “a lot more premium than before.”

The 5-seater configuration featured a ground clearance of 180 mm, high-impact body panels, and an updated interior with improved materials. The powertrain retained the proven electric architecture of the e2o family, with the rear-mounted AC motor and lithium-ion battery pack, delivering a real-world range of approximately 100 km and a top speed of around 80 km/h. The NXT’s lifespan was short. India’s rapidly evolving vehicle safety standards which required new frontal o”set crash tests, side impact tests, and pedestrian protection effectively made the aging e2o platform uneconomical to update. Mahindra chose to discontinue the e2o family entirely and focus its electric passenger car investments on the larger eVerito sedan and eventually the modern XUV400 and BE 6 platforms. The last e2o Plus rolled off the assembly line on 31 March 2019, effectively ending the e2o chapter.

Specifications

The e2o didn’t just sell cars, it built the case that Indian engineers could design, manufacture, and export a competitive electric vehicle to demanding global markets. Its legacy is not in sales figures, but in the confidence, IP, and institutional knowledge it gave Mahindra the foundation for the BE 6 and XEV 9e electric SUVs the world is buying today.

In the April 1968 issue of Car and Driver, David E. Davis penned what has now become the famous love letter to the BMW 2002 which in his mind, revived the nascent sports car segment. Through the e20, Mahindra showed the world what India can accomplish. I hope that this article has reflected how similarly India feels about the Mahindra e20.

What the e2o Left Behind

Judged purely by sales volumes and commercial success, the Mahindra e2o was a modest performer. It never came close to the 30,000-unit annual capacity of its Bengaluru factory; early months saw just 400 units sold across India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka combined. The UK launch lasted barely a year before Brexit and thin demand led to a full withdrawal. By any conventional automotive metric, this was a challenging product. But automotive history is rarely wri”en by volume alone. The e2o was the first properly crash-tested, M1-classified Indian electric car a fundamental step beyond the quadricycle limitations of its predecessor. It pioneered remote smartphone connectivity for vehicle functions in a mass market product, years before such features became standard even on premium EVs. Its battery-as-a-service ownership model was ahead of its time.

The acquisition of RECC gave Mahindra something money cannot easily buy: a decade of accumulated EV knowledge. Ba”ery management systems, regenerative braking calibration, thermal management, charging infrastructure planning all were real-world tested through thousands of REVA and e2o units running on Indian roads. That foundation is what allowed Mahindra to accelerate its EV ambitions credibly, eventually culminating in the acclaimed BE 6 and XEV 9e electric SUVs that launched to global praise in 2024.

The e2o also catalysed India’s broader EV ecosystem. Its difficulties, limited charging infrastructure, consumer range anxiety, high upfront costs, and government incentive unpredictability were the same problems that every subsequent Indian EV maker had to solve. The e2o discovered those problems first, so others could solve them faster. In that sense, it was the most expensive and important market research programme in the history of Indian electric mobility.

SOLAR POWERED? Stay tuned for the upcoming review in PLUGGED IN RIDE.

Specifications (to be confirmed)

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