My initial project brief was to design a postal/delivery van based on the current Reva to fulfil engineering, ergonomics, styling, and marketing requirements. It required using as much of the existing Reva car for the new vehicle, so as to keep the investment for this project minimum.
Light electric delivery vans have a very obvious advantage over their fossil fuel counterparts, especially in countries where the government has restrictions on polluting vehicles’ entry in some areas of cities, or has put high congestion charges for them. They also prove to be very cheap on operating cost, generating more profit for intra-city delivery or courier services. This is where Reva Electric Car Company found the need for such a vehicle in its product range.
The project which started with an attempt to simply add a specific volume to the existing Reva finally resulted in two variants of a vehicle worth calling ‘Reva professional.’ Features like split rear cargo doors with two-position lower door, and the unique rope-hooks exclusively developed for a vehicle with plastic body panel have the potential to be ‘India’s first’ features.
One very important thing which this project taught me is “Design is not just about solving problems, but also about creating opportunities for business growth!” Even though the cargo was the intended outcome of this project, of the two variants, the pickup, with some secured and some open storage space was appreciated more. It had much more flexibility of usage and looked a more ‘welcome’ derivative of Reva irrespective of its lesser calculated cargo volume! This project also helped me improve my sketching and built enough confidence in me to work as a good designer in the industry.
