BANGALORE: Bangalore based Reva Electric Car Company Pvt. Ltd. (RECC) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) have signed a statement of intent to develop two fuel cell hydrogen vehicles for a pilot project.
The first one will roll out in the next six months and the second a year later. The pilot project has been initiated by IOC to develop a hydrogen fuel economy in India as an alternative to hydrocarbon fuels such as petrol and diesel.

 
"IOC is committed to providing majority of the funding for the project an will create a the hydrogen infrastructure first at its R&D Center in Faridabad followed Delhi and Agra", said IOC R&D director BM Bansal. "For successful commercialization of this technology, there needs to be low cost platform for fuel cell vehicles and infrastructure issues to be worked out," added Bansal, who happens to be the signatory from IOC's end.
 
 
"Fuel cell systems offer a promising technology of the future with advantages that include zero-emissions, high efficiencies and minimal noise," said RECC chairman Sudrashan Maini. RECC already has a prototype electric car with hydrogen fuel cell, which has been unveiled by President Kalam in 2004.
 
 
RECC is increasing its ad budgets also significantly. "We plan to increase ad budgets to Rs. 400 million this year, this will be much higher than the Rs. 400 million we've spent over the last four years since the launch of the Reva," said RECC deputy chairman and CTO Chetan Kumar Maini. "Rediffusion handles our account," he informed.
RECC has over 1000 Reva cars running globally, including 200 in the UK.