India’s electric vehicle drive: Challenges and opportunities

But oil will rule the transports for at least another 30 years.

My guess is electric cars will rule the roost within 10 years. Nobody's gonna buy ICE cars once battery life is extended to 15+ years.
30 years is a long time and lots of things can change during that period. Just 10 years back nobody gave any chance to electric cars. Now not only electric cars, but electric trucks have turned out to be viable alternate solutions. The day electric cars are priced similar to petrol/diesel cars with at least 300km range, everybody will go for electric cars. These are the advantages of electric vehicles.
1. Awesome driving experience similar to top class sports cars.
2. Very low maintenance costs.
3. Very low wear and tear including break pads.
4. Low running costs.

The limitations of EVs are high initial cost and limited range. Both of these problems can be solved with large scale production and government subsidy.

Mechanics are gonna hate electric cars though.
 
My guess is electric cars will rule the roost within 10 years. Nobody's gonna buy ICE cars once battery life is extended to 15+ years.


Mechanics are gonna hate electric cars though.
Here is an interesting article-
EV battery prices fall sharply, but local manufacturing yet to take off

Batteries comprise 30 per cent of the cost of an EV. Its primary ingredient, lithium-ion cells, however, is still majorly imported from China and South Asian counties. According to estimates by EV makers, the average cost of battery cells has come down to $200 per kilowatt per hour (kWh), as against $1,200 per kWh three years ago.
 
Here is an interesting article-
EV battery prices fall sharply, but local manufacturing yet to take off

Batteries comprise 30 per cent of the cost of an EV. Its primary ingredient, lithium-ion cells, however, is still majorly imported from China and South Asian counties. According to estimates by EV makers, the average cost of battery cells has come down to $200 per kilowatt per hour (kWh), as against $1,200 per kWh three years ago.

We need battery life more than cost of battery.

If a person buys a car, he should be assured of having a battery life that extends throughout the legal life of a car rather than having to change it every few years. Currently, in our market, battery life is just 5 years. It needs to be extended to 15 years.
 
We need battery life more than cost of battery.

If a person buys a car, he should be assured of having a battery life that extends throughout the legal life of a car rather than having to change it every few years. Currently, in our market, battery life is just 5 years. It needs to be extended to 15 years.
This is the projected cost of battery till 2030. In next 5 years cost of battery is going to reduce by 50%. A 60kwh battery is more than enough for a mid sized sedan and by 2024 it will cost less than $6000. Currently Tesla is providing warranty for 125000 miles or 8 years, whichever is earlier. The idea is after 8 years, the replacement cost of battery is not going to hurt.
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My guess is electric cars will rule the roost within 10 years. Nobody's gonna buy ICE cars once battery life is extended to 15+ years.
Long distance travel will still depend on gasoline cars. I see greater chances of western cities adopting electric vehicles, more like a rent a car than owning one.

One of the problems with electric car is batteries, why does every one produce their own custom battery? Why not standardize it ? It can then be used across different manufacturers, it will increase the rate of adoption.
 
Long distance travel will still depend on gasoline cars. I see greater chances of western cities adopting electric vehicles, more like a rent a car than owning one.

One of the problems with electric car is batteries, why does every one produce their own custom battery? Why not standardize it ? It can then be used across different manufacturers, it will increase the rate of adoption.
Actually it's the other way round. Electric cars are more than enough for daily use as well as long distance travel. Latest Model S has 370 miles range and it can be charged to 50% capacity in 20 mins at a supercharger facility. If somebody is really bothered by this charging time, then they can rent a gas car for long distance travel.
 
This is the projected cost of battery till 2030. In next 5 years cost of battery is going to reduce by 50%. A 60kwh battery is more than enough for a mid sized sedan and by 2024 it will cost less than $6000. Currently Tesla is providing warranty for 125000 miles or 8 years, whichever is earlier. The idea is after 8 years, the replacement cost of battery is not going to hurt.
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These seem to be Western costs. Costs to produce in India may become even cheaper.

And it's not just Li-ion, due to the lack of Li resources within the country, the govt is exploring nickel and even solid state batteries. IMO, solid state batteries will become the future of battery tech.
 
Long distance travel will still depend on gasoline cars. I see greater chances of western cities adopting electric vehicles, more like a rent a car than owning one.

It's only a problem today.

If you are a frequent long distance traveller, then ICE makes sense right now. But for frequent city driving, with occasional long distance driving, an electric car makes more sense. But if you can afford something like a Tesla, then it's fine even for long distance travel. The advantage with electric is the frequency of breakdown is very low, so it's an advantage for long distance driving. And I'm not even talking about the low operation cost.

One of the problems with electric car is batteries, why does every one produce their own custom battery? Why not standardize it ? It can then be used across different manufacturers, it will increase the rate of adoption.

I think that's the plan with the new gigafactories coming up.
 
These seem to be Western costs. Costs to produce in India may become even cheaper.

And it's not just Li-ion, due to the lack of Li resources within the country, the govt is exploring nickel and even solid state batteries. IMO, solid state batteries will become the future of battery tech.
Not necessarily. Most cars are cheaper in US compared to India.
 
Not necessarily. Most cars are cheaper in US compared to India.
yeah bcos we have cabal, that wont either cut down costs or even bring new technology it has become more like cement industry with every one pricing at the same level.
 
Not necessarily. Most cars are cheaper in US compared to India.

Well, nothing much is produced in India after all. Here we have to pay import duties up and over the cost of the production outside the country.

India is yet to set up factories large enough to handle the scale required. It's only after that will the price get cheaper than in Western countries. Right now, it's practically non-existent.
 
480 km range in just 10 minutes of charge! New electric car battery that could be charged even faster
The biggest deterrent to making an EV buying decision is the driving range it promises and more than that, it is the fact that reloading the electric car's battery to full takes much more time than filling up the fuel tank with fossil fuel. Most EVs around the world use lithium-ion battery packs which evolve a bit every year but we're still to see a revolutionary tech in the field. Now though, there is a word from the Penn State University where engineers have developed a battery that can provide enough charge to drive an EV 320-480 km after a charge of only 10 minutes.

Charging an EV even at a superfast 'supercharger' station would take up to 50 minutes to fully charge the battery pack. But a new battery developed in the US promises otherwise.

“The 10-minute trend is the future and is essential for the adoption of electric vehicles because it solves the range anxiety problem,” says Chao-Yang Wang, Director of the Electrochemical Engine Center at Penn State, who worked on the battery.

A major issue for extreme fast charging tech has been lithium plating which can occur at high-charging rates which involves lithium depositing in spikes on the anode surface instead of being smoothly inserted into the carbon anodes. This can cause a reduction in cell capacity, cause electrical spikes, eventually leading to unsafe battery conditions.

The Penn State University battery design uses asymmetric temperature modulation in which the charging device is heated to 60 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes and then rapidly cooled to ambient temperatures. This makes for quicker charging without causing lithium plating. Also, limiting the exposure time at 60C to 10 minutes per cycle prevents degrading the battery.

The Indian automobile market now has electric cars that one can purchase. There's the Hyundai Kona EV, the soon-to-launch MG ZS EV, and more upcoming ones from Tata Motors and others. The number of electric vehicle charging stations being installed in key cities is also steadily on the rise. EVs are inevitable and it is technology like the one developed by the Penn State University that will pave the way for easier adoption of EVs.

While 10 minutes sounds way quicker than average battery charging times, the team is now working on reducing the time further to just five minutes which would make it equivalent to fuel refill times.
480 km range in just 10 minutes of charge! New electric car battery that could be charged even faster
 
Nitin Gadkari rolls out India's first inter-city electric bus service between Mumbai and Pune
Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday inaugurated the first inter-city electric bus service, between Mumbai and Pune.

The 43-seater capacity luxury electric bus, manufactured by Mitra Mobility Solution, has a range of 300 kilometre on a single charge and would be operated twice daily between the two cities, the operator Prasanna Purple Mobility Solutions said.

The company, which already has around 1,300 electric buses in operation, is also looking to extend these services in other parts of Maharashtra and adjoining states, its chairman and managing director Prasanna Patwardhan said.

Speaking at the event Gadkari, who is the minister for transport, highways and MSMEs, said his efforts in the last 4-5 years have been to see that electric buses run in large numbers on the country's highways.

He also said various corporations, state government corporations and private operators might order some 10,000 electric buses this year. "We are also planning to build e-(electric) highways," he said.

"This new move in the electric vehicle space gives us yet another opportunity to serve our customers. We also plan to extend this service to other routes within Maharashtra and adjacent states," Patwardhan said.
Nitin Gadkari rolls out India's first inter-city electric bus service between Mumbai and Pune
 
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