Electric Car Reva

The government not only controlled the price mechanism in the industry, but the entry of foreign players was also strictly regulated.

The situation, however, changed in 1981 with the setting up of Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL), a joint venture between the Indian government and the Japanese automobile major Suzuki Motor Corporation. MUL's small, fuel-efficient and well-designed car, Maruti 800, soon became a huge success. Consumers, whose choice had been restricted to the 'old-fashioned' Fiat and Ambassador cars, went in for the small car.

By the late 1980s, MUL became the market leader, leaving PAL & HML way behind.

The passenger car industry was segmented based on price as the small car (upto Rs 0.3 million), mid-size (Rs 0.3 - 0.5 million), luxury car (Rs 0.5 - 1 million) and super luxury car segments (above Rs 1 million) (Refer Table I & II for industry statistics). For the financial year ended March 2001, 590,647 units (Refer Table III) of cars were sold by the Indian passenger car industry. However, the industry's growth had an adverse impact on the environment, in terms of increasing pollution levels across the country (Refer Table IV for a note on the pollution caused by automobiles). With steadily depleting oil reserves and increasing pollution, the emission regulations became stringent and automobile makers were looking at alternatives to the conventional engines...