Dear Dr Humphreys,

Thought you might like my following blog / email to India’s Policy Makers and Auto Industry executives

I would appreciate your comments, if any

With regards,

hemen

From: Hemen Parekh [mailto:hcp@recruitguru.com]

Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2019 10:21 AM

To: 'Cabinet Ministers'; 'BJP National Executive'; 'psfs@mea.gov.in'; 'Rajeev.kher@ris.org.in'; 'Sanjeev@sanjeevsanyal.com'; 'Pulak.ghosh@iimb.ac.in'; 'ictsd@ictsd.ch'; 'amb-indiawto@nic.in'; 'rajiv@luthra.com'; 'Editors'; 'cb@cii.in'; 'prakash.j@sansad.nic.in'; 'Loksabha1'; 'Loksabha2'; 'Rajyasabha'; 'manifesto@inc.in'; siam@siam.in; acma@acma.in; 'chairman@mahindra.com'; 'cb@cii.in'; 'secy-ipp@nic.in'; 'sureshprabhu@irctc.co.in'; 'info@smev.in'

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Subject: THIS IS NOT AN ELECTION ISSUE : ONLY MORE IMPORTANT !

Someday ( hopefully, soon ) , Graphene will accelerate the adoption of Electric Vehicles, through :

# Reducing the weight of a car from 1300 kg to 650 kg

# Thereby, reducing the Li-ion Battery size by 50 %

# Therefore , reducing the selling price by 50 %

# Increasing Solar Panel efficiency from 20 % to 80 %

# Mounting solar panels on car roof-tops to charge small battery

# Thereby eliminating need for roadside battery charging stations

For the rest, read :

E – Car Extrapolation : a Wishful Thinking ?

What extrapolation ?

# Can weight of an E Car be reduced by 50 % ? And, if yes , can the Lithium-ion Battery capacity also get

reduced by 50 % ?

Eg :

Can weight of Mahindra e-Verito [ D6 ], be reduced from 1265 kg to 650 kg – leading to its battery size going

down from 21.5 KWh to 10 KWh ?

[ e-Verito , most likely uses 840 kg of steel and 130 kg of aluminum ]

But, how would that help ?

# Cost of Lithium-ion Battery is said to be 40 % of the cost of an E Car

# E-Verito sells for Rs 13 lakh . That means, its 21.5 KWh battery might have a landed cost of Rs 5.2 lakh

# If the battery size becomes 10 KWh , could its landed cost become Rs 2.6 lakh ?

But aren’t Lithium-ion Battery prices dropping anyway, year after year ?

# Very much so . By end of 2019, battery prices are expected to come down to $ 100 / KWh

# Hence , a 21.5 KWh battery’s international price could come down to $ 2,150

# After 40.8 % duty , that could mean a landed cost of $ 3,000 ( Rs 2.10 Lakh )

# And the landed cost of a 9 KWh battery could be only $ 1,500 ( Rs 1.05 Lakh ) !

According to the survey of EnergyTrend, the average price of lithium-ion batteries in each electric passenger car is currently about US$15,000, and is expected to fall below US$10,000 in 2020

( Price of li-ion batteries for vehicles below 200 USD/kWh in 2019

Hey , Sounds incredible ! But is there a direct relation between the “ Car Weight “ and “ Battery Size “ ?

Can a 10 KWh battery suffice if e-Verito’s weight gets reduced to 650 Kg ?

# Here are some examples of empirical extrapolation ( of a layman , no doubt ! )

# Ather 450 Electric Motorbike weighs 118 kg and carries a Lithium-ion battery of 1.92 KWh

Add 2 passengers ( 2 x 75 = 150 kg ) , taking the laden weight to 268 kg

And this :

Mahindra Treo ( 3 Wheeler ) weighs 340 kg and carries a Lithium-ion battery of 7.37 Kwh

Add 4 passengers ( 4 x 75 = 300 kg ) , taking the laden weight to 640 Kg !

But wait ! e-Verito has to carry 4 passengers ( incl driver ) – adding 300 kg of weight to 650 kg of car !

That adds up to a laden weight of 950 Kg .

# It is like adding up the weights and the battery sizes of the above-mentioned [ 2 Wheeler + 3 Wheeler ] . Quite

probable !

OK, fine ! but how can we bring down the weight of e-Verito from 1265 Kg to 650 Kg ?

# By replacing Steel used in car , with Graphene

What is Graphene ?

# It is a transparent layer of carbon wafer , just one atom thick

How is that important ?

# Graphene is 200 times stronger than steel and 10 times better at conducting heat than copper

# Graphene-based chips could deliver speeds more than ten times faster than silicon chips

# In chemical and electrical sensors, graphene could increase sensitivity by a factor of more than 30

# Graphene is also 250 times better at conducting electricity than silicon

# If we replaced the silicon chips in today’s transistors with graphene-based chips, we could increase the speed of

electronic devices ten-fold. ( FIRST GRAPHENE-BASED DEVICE IS A “FEW MONTHS” AWAY, SAYS STARTUP )

Is this wonder material Graphene , commercially available ?

# Not yet , but in a matter of months [ Congratulations , Prof. Sir Colin Humphreys ]

# A start up called “ Paragraf “ is expected to launch Graphene wafers , very soon

Then why do you say , “ Wishful Thinking “ ?

# Being 200 TIMES stronger than Steel, without doubt Graphene can cut down the weight of a car manifolds.

But to begin with, it might cost 2000 TIMES the price of steel , thereby precluding its use

# But ( - and again without doubt ), it is bound to become economically viable replacement as steel prices

continue to rise and further breakthrough in the manufacturing processes of Graphene , dramatically lowers its

cost .

# Even car components will get made by using Graphene in 3 D printing process

Do you think any of our Policy Makers would ask our scientists / engineers to examine this ?

I have no doubt that should Shri Nitin Gadkariji get to read this blog ( - being sent to him as an email ) , then he will waste no time to do so

He might ask ISRO :

“ Can you develop Solar Panels using Graphene to boost its efficiency manifolds ( say from current 20 % to 80 % ) – then install such a Solar Panel on roof-top of an Electric Car , to continuously charge its Lithium-ion battery, so that E cars do not need any road-side Battery Charging Stations , saving an investment of Rs 175 lakh*crore ? “

What gives you such hope ?

After reading the following , you should have no doubts !

Gadkari’s bus-in-air project tender by Aug 15

City MP and Union minister for road transport, highways and Shipping , Nitin Gadkari is all set to launch a project to operate a 150 seater bus which will ply in the air

He added that tender for the project will be finalized by 15 Aug

Could a dramatic reduction in Electric Car-Weight , leading to equally dramatic reduction in Lithium-ion Battery size – and price – accelerate the adoption of Electric cars in India ?

No doubt !

Imagine if lighter weight cars having very small Lithium-ion batteries were to start selling for Rs 5 lakh , then no one would want to touch a petrol car

And our government would not need to spend Rs 10,000 crore ( under FAME II ) to “ incentivize “ buyers !

Is there any other alternative to dramatically reduce battery size / cost, without having to reduce the car weight ?

Sure !

Following breakthroughs in Battery Technology are promising cheaper / much more powerful / longer lasting and faster charging batteries :

A Lithium Air Battery [ fifth as light as current versions and one-fifth their prices ]

Lithium−Air Battery: Promise and Challenges

B Graphene Battery [ giving a 500 miles / 800 km range ]

Grabat Graphenano Energy

C Foam Batteries

https://www.prietobattery.com/

D Nano Batteries

Nanotechnology in Batteries (Nano Battery)

E Auminum – Air Batteries

EV juice from Alu-Air Battery ?

F Sodium – Air Battery

Congratulations , Shri GopuKumarji

G Hydrogen Fuel Cell

Ray , a drop of golden Sun

=========================================================

Dear Shri Gadkariji,

I urge you to ask Prime Minister’s “ Science Technology and Innovation Advisory Committee “ members to examine licensing Graphene Manufacturing Technology from Prof. Sir Colin Humphreys / Paragraf

======================================================================

21 March 2019

Rsvp ; hcp@RecruitGuru.com

Thursday, 21 March 2019

FW: THIS IS NOT AN ELECTION ISSUE : ONLY MORE IMPORTANT !