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Featured 1,000,000 e-rickshaws in India and more BEVs to come

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by Robert Holt, Aug 22, 2019.

  1. Robert Holt

    Robert Holt Senior Member

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    I was completely unaware of the number and extent of use of e-rickshaws in metropolitan areas of India, which is the focus of the article in this link:


    Inside India’s Messy Electric Vehicle Revolution - The New York Times

    But 2 points struck me as particularly important :
    ”Although auto-rickshaws are safer and faster, a ride in one costs three to 10 times more than a ride in an e-rickshaw, which is less expensive because of the vehicles’ cheaper energy supply and ability to cram in four or more paying passengers.”
    The fossil-fueled versions of these rickshaws can only carry 3 passengers. The increase from 3 to 4 passengers may not sound like much, but it is an increase of 33% in fares and income, and thus could make a critical difference to the livelihood of these mostly poverty-level drivers. Most e-rickshaws currently use lead-acid batteries, and I speculate that if the drivers shift to Li-ion batteries they could either increase range for the same battery weight, or decrease battery weight and possibly add another passenger.


    “The central government is now trying to force motorcycle and auto-rickshaw makers to go all-electric, too. It just cut taxes on electric vehicles and has proposed subsidies for batteries and charging stations. Along with those carrots is a stick: a requirement that all new three-wheeled vehicles be electric by 2023 and that two-wheeled ones meet that goal by 2025.”
    I knew of Norway’s efforts to go electric, but not India, and this is a sweeping change of powering both these e-rickshaws used by millions of commuters every day, but also a complete switch to e-motorcycles in only 6 years. If a charging infrastructure is also built as planned, the possibility will exist to tour India by e-motorcycle.
     
  2. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    Requires an account to read.
    .
     
  3. Robert Holt

    Robert Holt Senior Member

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    Sorry! Hill!
    Did not realize a paywall was there, but the nutshell of the article was that this 3-rickshaw craze grew like Topsy without regulation from 2005-2014, then government stepped in to encourage it as major cities in India suffer from pollution from these fossil-fueled rickshaws and motorcycles, etc. Currently the government is encouraging this growth of this niche BEV vehicle with taxes, etc, but the Indian government has also now set deadlines for switching production of all 2 and 3 wheeled vehicles completely to BEV in the next 6 years, which to me is a profound change.
    Given that some German cities are currently prohibiting diesels, at least, and I think all fossil-fueled autos in their Central Business Districts on certain days, those city governments seem to also be forcing a switch to BEV in the very near future.(German owners of diesels like members of my family are royally pi$$ed off at VW and “Dieselgate” for destroying the value of their diesel autos, and now they are angry about being prohibited access to downtown areas on workdays . Change in Europe, India, and China is coming more quickly than I thought it would, and partly driven by emissions contributing to smog.)
     
  4. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    Just saw an article in the phone feed about India actually dialing back on EV incentives in general. There is a concern that shifting to EV's too rapidly will hurt local ICE industry and thus jobs.

    Hybrids and EVs do seem popular there already. A few years ago, 90% of Camry sales in India were hybrids.
     
  5. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    Thanks for the post Robert and good call Hill :)
    I searched duckduckgo.org / ddg.gg and got this link to the article
    Inside India’s Messy Electric Vehicle Revolution - The New York Times

    I think it also shows why other parts of the world might be more willing to shell out the extra cash for
    fuel cell technology than we are here in the US.

    ddg.gg toyota to supply hydrogen fuel cells to

    or do some research into what fuel xpaceX uses to get into orbit. irony?

    edit: looks like the OP link is the same as my link above and I can see the entire article without a NYT subscript.
     
    #5 vvillovv, Aug 22, 2019
    Last edited: Aug 22, 2019
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  6. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    you mean like Tata motors?

    iduno .... with so many impoverished - it seems they got bigger issues than supplanting gas Motors;

    India's most notorious kidney-transplant racketeer
    .
     
  7. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    NYT allows free viewing of X number of articles a month.

    SpaceX uses kerosene/liquid oxygen(LOX), methane/LOX, or monomethyl hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide. I have suggested hydrazine for FECV fuel, but I don't expect it to have strong support. SpaceX rocket engines - Wikipedia
    Neat, they are trying out a less toxic hydroxyl ammonium nitrate fuel/oxidizer mix. 'Green' Fuel Will Make Its Spaceflight Debut After SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch | Space

    Hydrogen was a popular fuel for upper rocket stages. While not as bad as for cars, hydrogen's low volumetric energy density was still a con. It was the reason why the space shuttle's fuel tank was so big.

    India has plans for giga-sized battery factories. Hydrogen FCEVs are seen as having a shot, if battery supplies can't meet EV demand. Fuel Cell EVs Could Become a Complementing Tech in India: KPMG
    But India is now slowing down their phase out of ICEs(below).

    The EV incentive they are thinking of slowing are decentives for ICEs. They general slow down of car sales might be hitting them hard.
    India might put a brake on EV push as its auto sector takes a hit – KrASIA
     
  8. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    ramping the grid is another issue, at least in my mind without any stats backing me up.
    I believe that if all the gasers were replaced by BEV tomorrow the power infrastructure would be disabled immediately

    if not sooner. ymmv
     
  9. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    A central A/C unit for a house can draw 27kWh to 45kWh during the day of the hotter seasons. The majority of plug in charging will be at night. If a Model 3 draws as much as the A/C did, it is being driven 135 to 225 miles a day.

    While there might be local issues, the grid can already supply the power for plug ins. Perhaps day time charging can be an issue, but the switch won't be overnight. And really, EV growth fast enough to be a problem for the grid is a good problem to have.
     
  10. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    except during gray brown and black outs
    How many gassers are on the road? How many miles do they roll daily?
    Someone should be able to do the matfs....
     
  11. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    214 billion kWh was used for cooling US homes in 2018.
    How is electricity used in U.S. homes? - FAQ - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
    Enough to charge 1 trillion miles on a Model 3.
    Cars are driven about 3.2 trillion miles annually in the US.
    Moving 12-Month Total Vehicle Miles Traveled (M12MTVUSM227NFWA) | FRED | St. Louis Fed

    The more important detail is that plug ins won't be replacing other cars overnight.

    Since the Leaf and Volt arrived, and through July 2019, about 1.3 million plug is have been sold in the US.
    They are part of the 276 million cars that are driven those trillions of miles. Even if everyone wanted to switch to a plug in tomorrow, there is not enough plug ins available for them to do so. At 15k miles a year, we would need 67 million Model 3s, nearly a quarter of the cars on US roads, to cover a trillion miles. We aren't even at 500k plug in sales a year yet, and it doesn't look we'll reach it this year. Forecasts have the total sold at 15 million by 2028.
    EV Sales Forecasts – EVAdoption

    So there is time to build electricity capacity and the grid to support EVs. Only neglectful power companies will be caught unaware by plug ins.
     
  12. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    Thanks for grabbing the published raw data.
    Although I'm not quite sure how to interpret this page at FRED ( not fred's house of pancakes)
    Figure 1 - Moving 12-Month Total on All Highways - June 2019 - Policy | Federal Highway Administration
    looks like they are saying 3+ tril a month
    ?
    Jan-19 3,226
    Feb-19 3,225
    Mar-19 3,226
    Apr-19 3,233
    May-19 3,236
    Jun-19 3,235

    could be combined leisure/commercial?

    find the link I posted above in the notes section of FRED page

    Moving 12-Month Total Vehicle Miles Traveled (M12MTVUSM227NFWA) | FRED | St. Louis Fed
    Source: U.S. Federal Highway Administration Release: Travel Volume Trends
     
    #12 vvillovv, Aug 28, 2019
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2019
  13. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    I’m fresh back from China. From what I saw there, e-bikes have totally replaced human powered bikes.

    I did see some EV cars, but it felt like the same proportion I’d see in St. Louis or Charlotte.

    The two coolest electric things I saw were the BEV city buses and the Maglev train.

    When I was in India 3 years ago I did not notice any EVs at all. I hired several pedal-powered ricks, some ICE-powered tuktuks and ordinary cabs over the course of that trip.
     
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  14. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    It is isn't a monthly value. It is a moving twelve month total. The miles listed March, 2019 are the miles driven in that month, plus the 11 preceding months.
     
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  15. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    didn't have to go that far. We had the Model X up in Utah a year ago & gave a hearty nod to these bad boys;
    [​IMG]

    It made me wonder what the kwh per person would be if the bus were full.
    .
     
  16. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    San Fran has had overhead electrified buses since ? I rode a few in the early part of this century. 2001 and 2002
    We all know?, I realize how different San Fran is from the rest of the US though.
     
  17. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    Source: A review of 20 Years’ Air Pollution Control in Beijing | UNEP

    In 1998, Beijing began an intensified air pollution control programme, and over the last 20 years the city has implemented a series of measures including energy infrastructure optimization, coal-fired pollution control and vehicle emission controls. These efforts successfully reduced air pollution. In the five years from 2013 to 2017, fine particulate pollution (PM2.5) in Beijing fell by 35% and by 25% in surrounding regions. This report outlines how Beijing’s air quality management programme has evolved over the past quarter century and makes recommendations for near, medium, and long-term steps that Beijing can take to maintain its momentum toward clean air.
    . . .

    Bob Wilson
     
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  18. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    There's a gen 2 Prius there with an installed armature taking advantage of those wires.
    A city is Europe is testing a rail based one for cars.
     
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  19. Robert Holt

    Robert Holt Senior Member

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    Today in Vancouver, Canada, we saw electrified buses (old style):
    23323323-75E4-4F00-871D-0600FEEA6B5E.jpeg

    Electrified delivery rickshaws:
    DD1C8B40-50B8-4AE2-895E-A1931ECFA45F.jpeg

    And electrified 2-person moped/scooters:
    0DB73CCF-28A1-431E-8A0D-9B1E85392EDC.jpeg
    8B4F8559-F7BE-4805-BA97-136344C14CAC.jpeg

    Given the efficiency data (MPGe) I have collected with my ebikes, I would predict that any of these non-automobile forms of transportation would have a much , much lower carbon footprint than a typical automobile.
    I hope that will also be true of electric aircraft when I can get that data.
     
  20. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    That's got to be a sight to behold, even better to ride in and get the skinny about the car from the driver.