Above: Mahindra's Appalachian pickup truck

Right now, the Reva G-Wiz has the Indian electric car market cornered. Rumors indicate that this may not be the case for long, though, as both Tata Motors and now Mahindra - India's two largest automakers - both have plans in place for zero-emission vehicles of their own. While we've heard about Tata's plans for both electrically-driven and air-propelled Nano microcars, this is the first we've heard of an EV from Mahindra, the company which has been making news with its plans to introduce new diesel and hybrid trucks and SUVs into the American market.

Mahindra's new EV would come with four seats, making it eminently more practical than the Reva. According to reports, the automaker would first launch the vehicle in its home market of India, which would act as a test-bed for the technology, before exporting to other countries. Would the U.S. be one of them? Time will tell, and consumer opinion over Mahindra's upcoming trucks and 'utes will likely play a big role in finding an answer.

[Source: CarTradeIndia.com]

The Reva electric car isn't new at all. It's already been on sale since 2001 in countries such as India, Sri Lanka, the UK, Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Austria and the USA.

During the Barcelona International Motor Show, AutoblogGreen had the chance to do a (brief) test drive of the model with the excuse that it's just been put on sale for the Iberian market (Andorra, Portugal and Spain). We drove for about 5 miles around Montjuïc mountain, close to the Auto Show exhibition halls, so we found lots of ups and downs, plus a lot of traffic.

How did we find it? Continue reading after the jump.

Indian electric car manufacturer Reva has just scored additional investments of $20 million from Draper Fisher Jurveston and Global Environment Fund (GEF). Reva's cars are currently available in UK, Italy, Malta, Sri Lanka, Cyprus and Greece, but not in Australia. The new money will be used to expand their production and distribution capacity, and develop new models. According to GEF president and CEO Jeffery Leonard this is the fund's first investment in an electric vehicle manufacturer. The Reva has a range of about 50 miles and a top speed of 40 mph.

[Source: TechWhack.com via Hugg]