Future of Electric Vehicles in India: A detailed study

There are hundreds of advantages of using Electric Vehicles. They doesn’t burn fossil fuels to generate power so they have zero emission and no pollution. They are virtually maintenance free as they have no gears, no engine, no belt or chain drive, no problem of starting and many more. In India you don’t need any registration or license to drive these vehicles as they are exempted from the Central Vehicles registration act by Automotive Research Association of India(ARAI). But still they are very far from grabbing the moderate share of the commercial vehicles market. What are the main obstacles that prevent Electric Vehicles from being popular. Know the facts here.

What electric vehicles can offer in India

Currently India imports about 70% of the fuels from abroad which is expected to rise to 82% in 2012 if the rate of increase of fossil fuel powered vehicles continue this way. India can save over Rs 3700 crore in foreign exchange if three lacs of electric vehicles comes on road by 2020. There would also be significant health cost savings as it could result in a reduction of over 16 lacs metric tons of CO, NOx, and HC.

India also has the maximum market potential for EVs owing to an established auto component infrastructure, low manufacturing and R&D costs. The presence of large domestic market can be a boon to the EV manufacturers. It can be efficient transportation vehicle in congested urban and metropolitan areas where they have to stop at traffic signals again and again. They are perfect for urban residents who commute between home and office within about 30-50 km per day. The EVs can transform urban India by reducing pollution and improving public health.

Different types of Vehicles available in India

Yobykes

Indus - division of Electrotherm, a Gujarat based company offers two scooterette and four bike models with motor powers ranging from 200-250W. The light vehicles can run at a top speed of 25km/hr and upto a range of 75 km on a full charge of 6-8 hours. The prices range from Rs. 14,000 to Rs. 23,000.

EKO Vehicle

It is a Bangalore based company which offers EKO Cosmic scooter and EGO Bike. The bikes have a good speed of 40 km/hr and it can charge itself in 10-15 minutes. The vehicles are also exported in many countries.

ACE Motors

The e bikes from ACE Motors weigh nearly 60 kgs with a load carrying capacity of 100-140 kgs. It can cover a distance of 220 km in a single charge of 6-8 hours. The bike can reach top speed of 25km/hr and is priced at Rs. 26,500.

Reva

It is the Indian answer of Toyota Prius or Honda FCX. Launched in 2001 as the first electric car in India, Reva has safety features such as steel space frame, side impact beams, dent-proof ABS body and dual braking system etc. The base price od Reva is around 3.2 lakh and the model with air conditioners will cost more. It can run 80km on a full charge of 8 hours.

Others

There are many other regional players in this industry like Scooters India, Atlas Cycles, Avon cycles or TI Cycles who have their e bikes.

Problems

The problems which stand as walls to adopting this type of vehicle are many. Majority of these vehicles are underpowered in performance. Charging of the batteries is inefficient and they are heavy enough to drag the performance further down. The driving range per charge is low and if you need to go a few kilometers off your regular track, you need to rethink if you would have enough charge left to drive back home. The design of the vehicles are so toyish that you can’t have proud of owning an EV.
There are some other minor problems also which can be overcome as they become popular. These problems include less availability of spare parts and good skilled technicians for maintenance purpose. You need to have a magnifying glass to find the dealers of these vehicles. The price of the vehicles are at such a high level that you can get a good petrol model vehicle at the same price.
Basically EVs lack the practicality and luxury that petrol/diesel powered vehicles have been able to offer.

The lights of hope

With the rising prices of Petrol/Diesel more people are adopting EVs as they have running costs of ten to twenty times lesser than the fossil fuel driven vehicles. Also everyone can drive them as no license or registration is needed for vehicles with motor power less than 250W. Government has also reduced the custom duty on three of the imported components in battery operated vehicles to 10% though it seems too less for the price reduction of the vehicles. The manufacturers say that a reduction of 10-15% of manufacturing costs will be possible if the they become popular and there is a good demand of these vehicles in the market. The research is going on the batteries and the motors to make them more efficient. The performance of the motors is expected to rise 10-20% and the battery performance is expected to be twice or thrice than the present ones. So there is a good probability that more people will be adopting the EVs in near future.
What are you waiting for? Go get them charged and get going! now!

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