India's first electric car has received European Union certification for export to the continent starting in January, the Reva Electric Car Company said on Tuesday.

?We have got a green card to the EU,? Managing Director Chetan Maini of the Bangalore-based company told a news conference.

The two-door, battery-operated car was launched two years ago after seven years of research. Reva claims that cost-effective manufacturing in India has helped the company build the car's software and hardware components cheaply and price it aggressively.

In India, Reva has a minimum street price of about 250,000 rupees ($5,490). The car would fetch a premium of at least 30 per cent in Europe, where competing models cost two to three times as much, Maini said.

Operating costs per kilometre run about 0.40 rupees, or slightly less than one US cent, while petrol-driven cars cost six times as much to run, company officials said.

The car is targeting an annual market of about 100,000 small environmentally friendly cars for city commuters in Europe, Maini said.

Five hundred Reva cars will be sold in Britain in the first year under a local brand name - G-WIZ, he said. The company expects to sell about 5,000 cars in Europe in three to four years on a conservative estimate, he added.

With congestion taxes and parking costs adding to the bills of European customers, electric cars are expected to have a sound future, Maini said.

Reva Electric Car Company is 74 per cent-owned by the Maini group, which specialises in auto components, and 26 percent by US-based AEV LLC.

Reva is already sold in Nepal and Malta and has also been tested in China, Hong Kong, the United States and Switzerland.