Today we pit the Mahindra E2O against not only the Tata Nano but also some of the best subcompact (small cars) of the world like Swift, Alto, WagonR, i10, and Santro. Of course the only other car that is better is the miniCooper but then consider also its cost… which is not small in anyway.
In this review the E2O takes on some of the best subcompact cars not one at a time but all together! We have compared them against 36 criteria. This is done so that there is complete transparency and everybody is able to judge for himself how good the car does in that criteria. It also lays bare the strengths and weakness of each car. Usually people think Santro is economical as it runs on CNG. But this review shows Santro is the most expensive even though the CNG price is less but it has the least mileage. Probably when the price of Petrol increases maybe then Santro-CNG will be an option… but not when you already have an electric cars like the e2o. Is E2O a poor man’s car? Not exactly. Poor men travel by Public Transport. Car is for people who can afford a little comfort and for this there is that little extra cost. This bit is true for all cars. And this is one of the reasons Electric Cars will not get a subsidy in India, maybe an e-bike or an e-rickshaw might get these subsidy. Although the government has promised subsidies in April 2014. Thus its not advisable for a person who cannot afford to pay his phone bills to buy a car. Just like its not advisable for those who cannot afford bread to eat cake instead. But then India is a free country and people are free to do as they wish. So its not strange to see a car in parking 28 days of a month and taken out may be 2 days. E2O’s price tag of around Rs 750,000 pushes it out of the smaller league and pits it against one of the best Subcompact car not only in India but in the ENTIRE World. (other better subcompact being the Lee Cooper). This is a huge task for a Version-ONE of any car (Reva car cannot be compared as “Version 1” as it was completely different 2 door car running on Lead Acid batteries). But E2O although beaten to 2nd place still comes out with its head held high and having some features that even the mighty Swift did not have and some features that the Swift will NEVER have.
In the comparison chart Serial Nos. 1 to 30 denote the features of the car while 31 to 36 denote the Savings/cash benefits to the user. In the first part the Swift comes out scoring 10 marks out of 30 while E2O comes a close second with 9 out of 30 while Nano manages just 3 out of 30 and the fact that Alto scored just 2 out of 30 says how brutal the test was. Alto scores for its Automatic Transmission which it tied with E2O and then for better breaking system which it definitely needs due to its higher speed.
In the Cash Saving test from 31 to 36 E2O out performs all. The higher cost of the battery eats a lot into the benefits of the E2O but still manages to save more than the rest of the cars. After 3 or 4 years when you will go to replace the E2O battery the cost will be much lesser and the technology would also be better. So the E2O owner doesn’t fear of increasing cost while the rest of the car owners will face an increasing cost pattern.
Kitna deti hai? How many KmPL? Thats the favourite question… so here are my figures… Of the Petrol cars best average is by Nano which gives 25kmpL E2O gives 240km per Ltr. How?? Consider petrol price per ltr is Rs 76. Divide it by 2 = Rs 38. E2O travels: September 2014 Edit:The benefits of EV are much more… the sense of freedom and liberation is hardly commented on! The freedom of just getting in your car and driving of to somewhere is not available to the guy with a petrol car as the fuel-cost is always on his mind. Petrol Price is Rs 76/Ltr The cost over time of an EV is pretty cheap…lets consider 10yrs. Cost of Alto or similar car = Rs 300,000 Total cost of Petrol car = 300,000 +19,41,800+ 108,000 = Rs 23,49,800 (add inflation cost of petrol and service cost) Cost of that tiny petrol car is DOUBLE I didnt include a lot of parts you might have to replace. Also consider the cost of the battery will surely come down and also the EVs can improve its range just by software updates and also by battery upgrades. So the range of the EV bought today could easily be increased to 300km in 10 yrs time. Presently the range has increased from 80kms to 120kms in the top variant. If the aspect of improving range through better software and hardware improvement over the years is considered then the total cost of the petrol car is atleast about 3 times the cost of the EV! And to those doubting Thomas-es who are unsure about the strength of E2O I quote the below from Team-BHP Websitesource. This is proof that E2O is STRONG!… not even a dent!
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