All Charged Up ?
Economic
Times ( 21 July 2016 ) carried a news report titled ,
"
All Charged Up , Tesla could Make in India
"
It
talks about Shri Nitin Gadkari's visit to Tesla's electric car plant in USA , and his talks
with Elon Musk
Upon
return to India , here is what Shri Gadkari
said :
"
They ( Tesla ) have path breaking energy storage
technology . I told them , India could be one of their largest manufacturing
facility and we would be the most cost effective "
Shri Gadkari has invited Tesla to
set up a manufacturing plant in India ( next to a port of their choice ) and
make it , its export base for the rest of Asia . All facilities / support /
changes in rules-regulations are promised
The
fact that Tesla Electric Car Model 3 , costs approx Rs 23 lakhs is not much of an issue for thousands of
rich Indian buyers
And
those rich Indian buyers will also be more than satisfied with the following
features of Model 3 :
Size
/ Sitting Capacity / Interior / Design / Style / Auto Pilot
/ Navigation Console / Acceleration / Battery
Life etc
They
would also feel quite comfortable with its " Range " of 346 Km per charge ( 215 miles )
And
, as far as the " Charge
Time " of 75 minutes is concerned , India's rich will ask their
drivers to go to a Charging Station , late into night , to ensure that they
don't have to wait at the station , during office rush hour !
Nor
would India's rich be worried if their charging cost per km ( for an electric car ) , goes up to ,
equivalent to Rs 10 per km ! ( @ Rs 70 per
litre of petrol , giving 10 km per litre for existing expensive cars )
But
will that motivate Elon Musk to consider India , over his declared intention of
putting up a plant in China ?
I
seriously doubt !
Consider
the following :
#
In 2015 , China produced 142,800 battery operated electric vehicles ( mostly cars )
#
By that time , China also had a nation-wide network of 160,000
" Electric Charging Piles " (
50,000 Public /
50,000 Private / 60,000 Commercial )
#
By now , Tesla itself has managed to put up only
624 Electric Super-Charging Stations world-wide ( of which,
500 in USA itself ) - with 480 V power supply
Setting
up lakhs of electric charging stations , all over India , is unlikely to happen
anytime soon , due to :
#
It is a " Chicken or the Egg First
" type of situation !
No one will buy an electric car unless there
already exists , a wide spread network of electric charging stations
{ and obviously , if no one buys, then no one would
want to manufacture ! }
No one will send his driver ( even after 8 pm ) ,
if the nearest charging station is 30 km away !
And which private owner would set up a
charging station where only 3 vehicles turn up for charging in a day ?
( I mean , in a night ! )
WHAT IS THE BREAK-THROUGH NEEDED ?
#
A " LOW COST "
Charging Station that can fully charge an electric car in " 5 MINUTES " - and at "
HOME "
( or , at the most , in the Cooperative
Housing Society , where you live )
IS SUCH TECHNOLOGY AVAILABLE ?
The
three-year old Israeli startup, named StoreDot,
is working on a prototype EV battery that can charge in as few as FIVE MINUTES , and provide 300 miles of driving range.
StoreDot’s
“ FlashBattery ” technology is based on proprietary
inorganic compounds and a hybrid multifunction electrode (MFE) and promises a
theoretical “instant” charge for smart phones and electric vehicles.
“If this
chemistry works as we show, there’s no reason we
couldn’t charge a car in FIVE
MINUTES ,” says CEO / Founder of StoreDot
, Doron Myersdorf.
LESSON :
# We don't
need Tesla to set up a plant to produce a Rs 23 lakh car when our own Mahindra's REVA e20 model
[
costing Rs 7 lakhs ] , can
run 90-100 km on a single charge ( but needing 1-5 hours for charging ! )
All that is needed to replace millions of smoking / polluting / killing ,
petrol / diesel vehicles is a Joint
Venture Collaboration between :
# Manoj Bhargava ( Free Electric
/ BillionsinChange.com
)
I am sure , given a challenge , he will come up with higher capacity
Electric Power Generating Bicycles which
can charge StoreDot's FlashBattery
, which , in turn will charge the electric cars at night , parked in the
compound of a Cooperative Housing Society
Health-conscious Members of the Society , will be , more than happy to "
pedal " such bicycles , housed in the
common Gym of the Society , after returning from office !
What's more , each Member's " One Hour of Pedaling
" will earn him , one car recharge of 5
MINUTES !
Besides providing a " vastly economic ( free ? ) " car recharging solution , this
will improve the health !
# StoreDot
I believe , Doron Myersdorf will be too happy to provide FlashBattery technology, considering our, about to
be
rolled out , NATIONAL ELECTRIC MOBILITY MISSION ( NEMMP ) , which aims to
get 6 Million
electric vehicles on the roads by 2020
#
SOCIETY of INDIAN AUTOMOBILE
MANUFACTURERS ( SIAM )
SIAM will lay down the Design Specifications
for :
# 2 or 3 " Standard " models
of Rechargeable Battery Power-packs to be installed in Electric Vehicles
# Standardized " Replacement Cycle Times
" for these power packs ( Battery Pack Life )
# Output parameters for Electric Power
Generating Bicycles ( Voltage / Kwh etc )
# Charging Standards for FlashBattery (
Ampere-Hour / Time etc )
In past 3
years ( 2012-13 to 2015-16 ) , the total number of vehicles on Indian
roads has gone up from 172
million to 186 million
( some 4.5 million per year ! )
For " Implementing NEMMP , and to strengthen the charging
infrastructure for electric vehicles " , government has set up a
committee consisting of Transport Ministry /
Power Ministry / Heavy
Industries Ministry and Environment Ministry
To those who agree
with my suggestion , I request that they share this blog among their contacts
and request them to do likewise
If
implemented in a hurry , I believe Shri
Narendra Modi would want to speak about this achievement in his
Independence Day speech from the ramparts of Red Fort on 15 Aug 2017 !
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15 Aug
2016
www.hemenparekh.in / blogs
hemen
parekh
Marol
, Mumbai , India
(
M ) +91 - 98,67,55,08,08
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