Why EV’s (Electric vehicles) can’t succeed in INDIA?
Electric vehicles can be a boon to the whole Automation industry if we just started to understand their mechanics. EV’s uses an electric motor to propel forward using the battery as their main energy source. Yet, we haven’t seen great progress in Electric Vehicles so far. To understand it further we need to understand what we are lacking?. A Simple answer would be Infrastructure but that’s just a start. There are a lot of things that are contributing to this problem and thereby making it a difficult mission to accomplish. So, without further wait. Let’s dive right right into it.
#1. Charging stations
This is the main and massive contribution to fewer sales of electric vehicles. Let me explain in a very layman language. Look at the Roadmap of Delhi and the Charging Station Available in Delhi.
From the maps, we can clearly see where are we lacking. The charging stations are just not enough. People from Ghaziabad wouldn’t be able to make a roundabout trip if they wanted to. For a working EV infrastructure, we need to calculate where should the Charging station be located so that everyone who has EVs can just go anywhere they want. Let me explain it better with an example.
Considering Mahindra E20. It is one of the most affordable EVs for Middle-class folks. So we Know that Mahindra E20 has a theoretical range of 120 KM and an average range of 95 KM (Considering Nominal Voltage of Battery Pack). For it to have a car running at any point in time we need a Charging Station within the range of 45Km (assuming it has 50%). So a Theoretical map would look something like this.
Well, Looks like we have more than enough right? but here comes the catch even though people have a charging station at home what about people who came from another town or someone whose battery ran out in the middle. These charging stations are the basic necessary infrastructure needed. Incase of Delhi we might just go through it but what about India. Considering Tata Nexon who has a range of 350 Km theoretical and about 302 KMs Practical. We will be needing a charging station every 200Kms, Considering that you are on a Highway. Below is the amount of charging stations we have right now.
So we can see we are lacking so much in infrastructure that it's back seating the entire EV industry. However, there is a solution to this which could be a breakthrough to the entire problem.
A solution to Charging Problem
What is that one place we need to stop if we have a trip longer than 200 Kms? The answer is simple yet outside the box, Restaurants. We have restaurants every 15–50km on the highway. A perfect solution to the problem but how can we do that, how can we convince all restaurant owners to have charging stations on their premises. Simple we don’t convince them, we make an opportunity to earn we make charging stations commercially available, that can be used by owners as an investment and we also provide them with incentives from the government. Easy right. We found the solution to the charging problem on highways. This way we have a win-win situation. restaurants and hotels get customers and customer can charge their cars while paying for them. Now that we have solved the underlying problem what’s next?
#2 Incentives
Even though we have produced good EVs still people are not buying them, what is the reason. Norway has recently reached a stage where almost 60% of the population uses EVs. An Impossible task, how did they manage it? The answer is simple, Incentives. The government of Norway provided incentives to the public like leaving out the tax, zero Parking fee for EVs, and solar panel incentives for charging your car through solar energy, Pretty Cool Norway. While our Government has incentives but it is not as impressive as Norway and people are not yet motivated enough. Some states in India don’t even have any kind of Incentives. In Seattle government pays over $10000 to buy Tesla or any EVs. Even better, It is waved off right away on the Website while you make the purchase. If our Government can do this we might just get the public motivated for the EVs but Improving the Infra still would be a priority over it.
#3 Mentality
We have seen EVs that are strong enough to even pull a monster truck. yet the mentality of most Indians is that EVs are not strong enough, Expensive, and Inferior to ICE cars. To break this mentality we need the Company producing EVs to make impactful Ads and Launching events that can make the headlines in local newspapers. If EVs are in the mind of the general public we might have more sudden movements from people and government toward the engagements of EVs. Once EVs start hitting the homes of people. The public will soon realize the happiness of waking up to a full Battery (equivalent to a full gas tank). People might realize they have more freedom with EVs than ICE cars. People who have used EVs are more likely to purchase the EV for their next vehicle than the ICE vehicle. That means there is merit in EV but it is not just showcased easily. Not yet that is.
#4 Are we really Improving Climate?
Let's go back to the charging aspect, we are using electricity for charging stations but how is that electricity produced. If we are using fossil fuels to get that electricity it will still have some negative impact. Even though we 42% of Pollution from the ICE Vehicles. It still has some drawbacks. So solution?
Well, yet an easy solution would be solar panels. Still, we know it may not be possible for everyone to afford solar panels so, again awareness and government policies/incentives will be the best bet for this problem.
Moving forward there are more things that we need to consider for EV to Boom in India. I believe in India and sooner or later change will come and we just need to embrace it. We have already passed the reversible climate change, So all we can do right now is to save the rest with logic and facts.
EV could be one of the stepping stones for that. Let’s hope for the best.
Thank You for Reading!
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