Emails (Others): All Charged Up ?

Tuesday, 16 August 2016

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 !

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15 Aug 2016

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs