All-electric future is here, almost

H. Kishie Singh

In their Wisdom, when the Ancients described a major glitch in any functioning, they said, the right hand did not know what the left hand was doing!

The last half year has seen a vast change in the thought process of the government and the auto manufacturers. Our capital, Delhi, is the most polluted city in the world. This is what jerked the government into action.

The internal combustion engine, which may go down in history as man’s worst invention, is the single biggest contributor.

The National Electric Mobility Mission Program is in place and hopes to have six to eight million electric vehicles (EVs) on the road by 2020. A drop in the ocean, for sure, but what the Mission hopes to achieve is that 9,500 million litres of fuel will be saved and a reduction of 2.2 million tons of greenhouse gases.

The Tatas and Mahindras are in a race to bring out EVs ASAP. No one knows when that will happen. Suzuki will develop electric engines for Maruti and Toyota by 2020. Hyundai has the Ioniq EV in Europe and US. They plan to have an all-electric fleet by 2030. That could be the first goodbye to fossil-fuel cars.

Let’s face it: EV technology has come of age, even if India is asleep with eyes wide open!

Are EVs going to be practical? Yes! Why? Because there is no choice, no alternative. Or choke to death! Simple as that!

Here are some examples of how and why it works, or in India’s case does not work. The UK will ban sale of fossil-fuel cars from 2040. France says the same to meet targets to keep global warming below two degrees Celsius. China may meet its target, for a very simple reason. When the Party gives on order, work gets done! No bureaucratic slumber. China plans to ban fossil-fuel vehicles and go completely electric by 2030.

One of the problems with EVs is that the batteries need constant charging. Here China has the lead with 2,15,000 charging stations at the moment. For now, India has just 350! Ask yourself, who is serious about this project of going electric?

When I started to write this column, I had some unanswered questions. A headline in the business page of this paper answered the most important question of the decade: ‘Maruti to launch first Electric Vehicle by 2020!’ That is around the corner.

Now, the most important and expensive and actually the heart of the EV is the battery. In another first for India, Honda Motor Co. Ltd plans to set up a lithium- ion battery manufacturing plant in India.

The government wants only EVs on Indian roads by 2030! Really?

Honda says by 2030, 65 per cent of its sales will be EVs; 15 per cent of these will be pure electric. The rest will be hybrid, plug-in hybrid or fuel-cell battery powered. Auto giants Toyota, Honda, Hitachi, Toshiba, Suzuki and Denso Corp. have all put their shoulder to the electric wheel. They will make it happen.

Can we provide the charging stations? I feel very confused when petroleum minister Narender Pradhan says he wants to double India’s oil refinery capacity to 600 million tons from the present 230 million tons. I wonder what for.

Somebody please tell him which way the world is headed. It may surprise him.

Happy Motoring!