Chetan Maini, deputy chairman and chief technology officer of the Bangalore-based company, which has a tie-up with the US based AEV LLC, said the EVs are exempt from sales tax in Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Goa and Pondicherry.

It is also exempt from road tax in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Goa and Pondicherry.

Maini was in the city to receive the SESI 2004 Business Leadership Award at the International Congress on Renewable Energy (ICORE). He has earlier been awarded the prestigious Dr M S Swaminathan award for environment protection in 2001 and the YEO Thomas Alva Edison award for entrepreneurship and innovation in February 2002.

"We have made a few representations before the Maharashtra government to exempt the EVs from both sales and road tax, but there hasn't been response so far," he said. He, however, added that the Union ministry has asked all states in the country to promote the EVs and other fuelcell-run vehicles under its ambitious alternative surface transportation programme.

Demonstrating the advanced prototype of a fuel cell operated version of Reva, which works on the proton exchange membrane (PEM) principle, Maini underlined to need to have uniform policies throughout the country to promote vehicles operating on non-conventional sources.

The latest model, according to Maini, converts hydrogen and oxygen from air in a non-combustive electrochemical reaction to generate electric power. Compared to the conventional IC engines, the fuelcell technology is 50% more energy-efficient, he said, explaining that since pure water is the only emission, it is the "greenest technology" to power the car.