Chetan Maini

Chief Of Technology And Strategy

Mahindra REVA

Chetan Maini is the Chief of Strategy and Technology at Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles, Bangalore, India.
Motivated by a desire to combat climate change, in 1994 Chetan co-founded the Reva
Electric Car Company (REVA), one of the first electric car companies. In 2001 he launched the REVA electric vehicle in Bangalore and in September 2009 at the Frankfurt Auto Show he unveiled two new electric cars, the 4 seat REVA NXR and the 2 seat REVA NXG. In May 2010 the USD 7 billion Mahindra Group of India acquired a majority stake in REVA and the company was renamed Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles.  Mahindra Reva has over 300 employees and is headquartered at the Bommasandra Industrial Area in Bangalore, India, next to Electronic City, one of the world's technology hubs.  
 
Today, Chetan’s pioneering efforts mean that Mahindra Reva has the largest deployed fleet of electric vehicles in the world. His company has been acclaimed by Business World India as one of India’s “Cool Companies”. In 2009 Chetan was named by Business Week Magazine as one of the top 50 most powerful people in India and at the AIMA Managing India Awards 2010 Chetan was named “Entrepreneur Of The Year”.  
 
Chetan has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan with a focus on solar electric vehicles and a master’s in mechanical engineering from Stanford University, where he focused on hybrid electric vehicles. His interest in electric vehicles started while at the University of Michigan, where he was one of the leaders of the solar car team that won the GM Sun Race in the USA and came third in the World Solar Challenge 1990 in Australia. Chetan has 20 years’ experience in the development of six solar, hybrid and electric vehicles in the US and India. Prior to REVA he worked for Amerigon Inc. (USA) and General Motors (USA) and as program manager at Amerigon, he was responsible for all electric vehicle programs and initiated the REVA project. Chetan holds patents in energy management systems for electric vehicles and has presented technical and keynote papers on electric vehicles globally. His papers have been published in several international journals.