Mahindra e2o review, test drive and video

If you think about it, the e2o is the first ‘car’ that Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has developed in-house and it’s an electric one. The Verito doesn’t really count as it’s been handed down by Renault and the rest of M&M’s products are all UVs, SUVs, trucks and even bikes. Call it a leap of faith or an attempt to gain the first-mover advantage, but M&M has just launched the only electric car on sale in India, putting it first in line to cash in on an Electric Vehicle (EV) revolution that’s yet to happen. In fact, the world has far from embraced EVs. The reasons are well known – EVs are not a viable proposition due to their high price, limited range and an overall lack of practicality, and India may take a generation more than the developed world to see an en masse shift towards them. However, with the e2o, M&M is hopeful that it can kickstart the EV movement. So will the e2o find early adopters?

As a pure EV, the e2o has a lot going for it. For starters, it feels like a proper car, unlike the toy-like Reva-i that it’s replaced. It’s a pukka four seater, it’s fairly well equipped and it comes across as a car that you can live with. Huge hurdles still remain, like the limited range and the lack of practicality. But the biggest one is the on-road price, which is Rs 6.24 lakh for the T2 variant in Delhi (despite a Rs 1.8 lakh subsidy) and soars to Rs 7.67 lakh (on-road) in non-subsidised Bangalore.

Is the e2o worth making a shift to green motoring? We’ve put this car through a rigorous test to see if it’s worth the extra money and how easy it is to live with.