General Motors is poised to join forces with the Indian start-up that leads the world in budget electric cars in a deal that could come to define the fallen American group’s efforts to reinvent itself.

GM, which is scrambling to reform its image as the maker of pricey gas-guzzling SUVs, is in advanced talks with Reva, based in Bangalore, whose £7,000 G-Wiz is the bestselling plug-in car in Britain.

The discussions have centred on the creation of a 50-50 joint venture that would give GM access to the Indian company’s technology.

The arrangement would be the first such tie-up for GM, once the world’s largest company, since it emerged from a whirlwind 40-day bankruptcy in July, during which it became 60 per cent-owned by the US Government.

At the time, President Obama said that the Chapter 11 filing heralded “the beginning of a new GM”.

The Reva talks, which have been conducted by GM’s Indian office and are understood to be awaiting approval from its Detroit headquarters, point to the shape that GM is aiming to take as the slimmed-down company, like many of its rivals, bets on the dawning of a new era of electric motoring. Last month, GM unveiled the Chevrolet Volt petrol-electric hybrid, which is expected to achieve 276mpg.

However, even as he unveiled the new model, Fritz Henderson, the GM chief executive, admitted that the company had yet to crack the biggest problems posed by electric cars: what if you cannot find a plug?

Access to Reva’s power management technology could help GM to address such problems, analysts said. Even though the Indian company’s G-Wiz has a range of only 48 miles, it includes features designed to prevent users being stranded. GM is likely to adapt Reva’s technology in an electric version of its Chevrolet Spark minicar.

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