Electric Indica EV to test Norway mart

Auto major Tata Motors will take its electric Indica – the Indica EV – to Norway next year. The car will be launched in India a year later.

The hatchback car’s electric version, named Indica EV, had been launched as a prototype along with the electric version of the company’s successful sub-one tonne light commercial vehicle named Tata Ace at the SIAM exhibition in New Delhi recently.

Tata Indica EV car, which can run up to 200 km when fully charged with a two-pack battery, is a left hand drive vehicle built by the Tata Motors research facility in the UK. Significantly, the launch in Norway comes in through a collaboration with the top electric vehicle research and development firm in that country. The production of the Tata Indica EV car has not yet started and Indian buyers would have to wait another two years for the launch of this car as the country does not possess the necessary infrastructure at the moment.

Electric cars are seeing a heightened interest in the Indian car market. A Tata Nano electric version is planned, and Ajanta Oreva Super is another electric car that was announced recently. But it is highly like that the Indica EV would be the first practical electric car for India.

Tata Motors has said that the company was looking at electric vehicles as such cars are almost zero emission. It plans to test the Tata Indica EV in Norway with the Norwegian partner companies, because a lot of infrastructure is required for electric vehicles. The company added that Norway, of late, has been seeing infrastructure improvements for electric cars.

The prototype Tata Indica EV model used imported lithium batteries. Though these batteries could give a 175km -200km run on full charge, the mileage could vary according to battery usage. The Tatas are in fact on the look out for alternate compressed-air OneCAT technology for the Indian market, but it is likely that the Tata Indica EV will make it into India much before compressed air car from Tata. (Related story on the Tata compressed air car)

It may be recalled that Tata Motors was earlier planning to roll out an electric-drive version of the Tata Nano called the E-Nano. This car was to be built in cooperation with the Norwegian electric car specialist company Miljoebil Grenland. Miljobil Grenland is a known name in the European electric car circuit.