Wednesday, 10 April 2013

Mahindra Reva in tech tie-up with Vodafone - The Hindu

Chetan Maini, Chief of Strategy & Technology, Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles Pvt Ltd with Naveen Chopra, Director, Vodafone Business Services at a press conference announced a strategic technology partneship that will enable Vodafone to provide " Machine-to-Machine (m2m) Communication Services". Photo: Shashi Ashiwal

Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles has entered into a strategic technology partnership with Vodafone Business Services to provide machine-to-machine (m2m) communication services in Mahindra's newly-launched electric vehicle—the Mahindra e20.

The tie-up makes the Mahindra e20 a truly 'connected car' and among the few in the world to support telematics.

Addressing a press conference in Mumbai on Wednesday, Naveen Chopra, Director, Vodafone Business Services, said, "Connected cars are the future of tomorrow. We developed this over the last two years with Mahindra Reva. e20 users can avail themselves of information such as knowing the current battery level or calculating the distance the car can travel. It can also be used to remotely operate the air-conditioning system and can be used to lock or unlock the car doors. It can also be used to find the nearest charging station and avail an emergency boost charge with a command on the smartphone for an extra 8-10 km. Chetan Maini, Chief of Strategy & Technology, Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles, said, "In future, the plan was to get solar energy to power cars in a big way".