Experience w/ REVA electric cars? How many thousand miles do battery packs last?The people in India who manufacture the Reva claim that their lead acid battery packs last 800 recharge cycles; and, that they have had no complaints about batteries with their REVAs.If there are any Reva ecar owners in this forum, could you please advise what your experience is with your battery pack's longevity?When did your first battery failure occur? (How many cycles, or miles, or months of use)How did you detect the bad battery/batteries?
Well, I don't drive a REVA, but I do drive an electric car with a lead-acid battery pack. These batteries can last anywhere from 10,000 miles to 30,000 miles, depending on how well they are cared for. My own battery pack costs about $850 to replace, so at 20,000 miles, that's about 4 cents per mile. My electricity cost is about 1 cent per mile. So my total cost per mile is about 5 cents, which is much cheaper than gasoline. Again, I don't know about the REVA specifically, but I monitor the health of my batteries by checking individual voltages (they should be the same, within 2 tenths of a volt), and also by occasionally measuring specific gravity (the chemistry of the electrolyte.)
