Reva founder looks to make electric cars affordable in India

Chetan Maini's cheaper modular batteries could help pare buying cost of EVs by up to 50%

Chetan Maini, the man who gave India its first electric car, the Reva, is now looking to give the country its first real chance of replacing gas guzzling vehicles with zero emissions electric ones by making them more affordable.

Maini's new venture is looking to build modular batteries for electric vehicles that can be swapped out quickly at stations similar to today's petrol bunks. The company's battery as a service model could help reduce the initial cost of buying EVs by as much as 50 per cent.

"While the cost of an electric car is more than a conventional car, if you