Reva EV promoter Dr. SK Maini passes away
SK Maini, promoter of the Maini Group, passed away yesterday in Bangalore at 87 after a long illness. Maini was a strong influence in his son, Chetan Maini's electric car venture, who went on to develop India's first commercially available electric city car, the Reva. In fact, the Reva was named after his wife.
Born in Punjab, SK Maini Studied mechanical engineering at Benarus Hindu University before completing a degree in industrial administration in the UK. His professional career started as a general production manager for MICO-Bosch in Bengaluru. After a six-year stint here, he set up the Maini Group in 1973. The group consists of six companies with over 1,500 employees across 14 locations. The firm has interests in high-precision engineering components, materials handling, warehousing and logistics solutions and aerospace.
The most well-known of these ventures has been the Reva Electric Car Company. Set up in 1994 by son Chetan, the firm was initially a joint venture between the Maini Group and Amerigon Electric Vehicle Technologies from USA. Eventually, it became a fully owned Maini operation. The Reva electric car went on sale in 2001, and was exported to over 26 countries. The most notable of exports was the collaboration with GoingGreen in the UK for the G-Wiz. Through its lifespan over 4,000 units of the Reva were made.
The Reva Electric Car Company entered int quite a few technical partnerships include one with GM India in 2009. Eventually, the company was bought out by Mahindra in 2010, who launched the second-gen Reva as the e20. This company in its current form does business under the Mahindra Electric moniker.