New Wave in Auto industry -Electric Vehicles

It is not something new that petroleum products availability have limited life and the only source of energy fir future is either electric or solar. Most of the countries and majors in auto industry have gone much ahead in the line but still much to do.

Ford has already launch its vehicle " Focus". I have seen solar car of Renault in Auto show of 2010. in India, we cannot ignore Mahindra's efforts in this line. Their first car was Bijli. And now acquisition of Reva and now Mahindra Reva. I do not know whether any other auto industry in India has gone ahead some much. May be but I do not know!! These are few examples to mention.

The critical factor from common man's point of view is availability of charging units. We are so much used to see fuel stations at many places that we do not realise its importance and efforts gone in the process of creating this distribution channel. Now those efforts are required to create channel for charging units. In city like Mumbai where distance travelled normally is not less than 50 km every day, it is very critical. I am a common man and I do not understand how it will be made available. Without full support from governments, this task is impossible.

Apart from availability, there are two aspects - time taken for charging and cost of charging. I am sure that there must many mavericks working on creating a solution and many big players will be ready to buy the technology. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently demonstrated a rapid-recharging system, designed to improve electric vehicles’ operation. Their project aims to change public perceptions about the practicality of such vehicles. The team’s objective is to recharge an electric car in less than 30 minutes, without severely reducing the operating lifetime of the batteries or causing other problems.

As far as cost is concerned, it can be dealt with later. there are many examples that once usage starts, costs comes down fast. Take any example in electronics industry. When I took my first mobile, rate of Rs.36 per minute and now, I even did not notice how much I pay for my mibile charge. Same will happen for this also.

Hence govts and industry should concentrate on creating channel for charging which should be similar to current channel for petrol/diesel/CNG and charging as fast as possible e.g. 30 minutes, 15 minutes or even replacement within 2 minutes.

One funny thing about it. Recently, US govt has passed a law relating to noise level for Electra vehicle. Probably first time someone is making law to have noise.

The importance of the electric vehicle has gone beyond the tolerance which is evidence from the recent incidence of leakage of secrets from Renault engineering team. One very high lever person - member of executive committee - is also involved. He could probably be one of top ten from Renault. As it was a joint project with Nissan, I do not know how Nissan is looking at it.

Let us hope that soon we will see some vehicles on road in Mumbai!!!