REVA G_Wiz delivery

Our REVA G-Wiz
delivered July 2006

28th July 2006 - Reva G-Wiz delivery day. Hurrah! The day has finally arrived when we can stop using out petrol car for most of our everyday driving.

First impressions are great - the quality of the paintwork is very good with a very deep lustre. Panel fit and finish and interior fit seems better than the demo car we tried a few months ago with fewer exposed screw heads and a general tidy up and Reva appear to have made a number of other improvements as well - the brakes seem to be much improved, and there is a second aerial fitted, so I suspect the radio reception is better (not that I've tried that yet).

My Husband is a fairly tall chap, and it does take a bit of fiddling with the seat for him to get comfortable. That said, if he puts the driving seat right back, he has more than enough leg room and head room - although that is at the expense of any leg room in the back. I suspect that if I were driving for a long time in the G-Wiz I might find the seats a bit uncomfortable - but hey, the batteries would run out long before that became an issue.

Interior of the
REVA G-Wiz electric car

We drove 26 miles in it today and it is a real hoot to drive. I was impressed how well it kept up with the rest of the traffic, even when driving in economy mode: driving through Reading the performance of the car comfortably kept up with everyone else - I ended up being held up by other cars most of the time.

The car feels faster than it really is: I suspect it is because it is so narrow and the bonnet is so short, it makes the car feel like it is hurtling down the road at a great pace of knots - even when you're really only doing 30mph! So far I've reached 40mph in economy mode on a flat road. I haven't tried 'FAST' mode yet, and when I tried the car up some hills - it did struggle a bit. A relatively short 1:10 hill in economy mode was accomplished at around 15mph, lesser inclines could be tackled at around 20mph - both done from a slow-start pulling off roundabouts.

Nobody else has a G-Wiz in Reading, so there were some interesting reactions from passers-by, most of whom seemed very curious by a silent and funny-looking car.

The climate controlled seats seem to be up to the job of keeping me cool, and the sliding windows work well enough - although I want to add a sunroof in the next couple of weeks to improve airflow.

Downsides? Well, the ride is a bit on the choppy side, and we have the 'angry bumble-bee' buzzing noise at speeds over 30mph which seems to effect a number of these cars. I identified the noise as coming from the grey plastic panel by the windscreen wiper underneith the bonnet - then I checked the g-wiz forums and found others who have got a fix for this.

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