positivemindset

When electric vehicles (EV) started their presence in India, one of the opinions that I gravitated towards was that they are very amenable for taxis as the charging points can be centralized, the latest technology and GPS systems can be incorporated and even renewable energy could be used at scale in the charging points.

I was happy to note that ‘https://blu-smart.com/‘ BluSmart has adopted this model and found it very convenient on a recent trip to Delhi. BluSmart rates for a 6/7 hour package were competitive and it offered great convenience. They are currently present only in Delhi and Bangalore (sorry Mumbai folks, your city is passe’) hopefully spreading out to other cities also soon.

One of the aspects that I experienced while travelling in a 7-hour trip in an EV was that it was very comfortable for a rear seat passenger. In fact, more comfortable than ICE taxis. I could perhaps venture to ascertain the reason which is that all EVs by default are 4-wheel drives as there is a motor attached to each wheel. So, the drag which is usually experienced in traditional front-wheel drive cars is not felt in an EV.

I spoke to the driver wanting to ascertain the range but he was non-committal saying it depended a lot on the driver and conditions with variability in range per charge differing from 50 kms to even 100 kms. Now that seems to be a vast range amenable for lots of driving data open to all sorts of inferences given that most of the vehicles are the same i.e. Tata Tigor EV.

The architecture of Delhi being one of the few planned cities is always enticing with the red brick buildings having their own charm. The newly constructed ‘Bharat Mandapam – Wikipedia‘ gels well with the architecture and is a beautiful extension. Usually I stop at ‘Moolchand Parantha (@moolchandparantha) • Instagram photos and videos‘ to have my favorite aloo parathas but this time missed it.

One of the constant complaints from my taxi driver was the lack of parking options as I went for meetings with the constant threat of the car being towed if parked by the road. This is becoming a major issue across cities in India where vehicles have increased without availability of parking options. Instead of multi-level public parking seen in Europe, we have to usually search for a Mall or shopping complex to find a safe parking space.

My key thought after this trip is that EVs do seem to have a future in India albeit to start with on the taxi mode and perhaps later on becoming more pervasive as charging infrastructure improves. The range unpredictability is an issue though. Also, there is a huge parking problem across urban areas and car pick up/drop services with common parking somewhere is a service for which there is demand.

Signing off until my next post. Stay healthy and happy!