Dr Khasha Ghaffarzadeh, Research Director, IDTechEx​

The drone market in recent years has completely changed character. Gone is the hype. IDTechEx​'s report clearly demonstrates this by tracking company investment and formation trends each year. The price wars have also taken their toll with the Chinese winner having forced many to give their hardware (platform) play completely. We are often therefore asked whether this marks the end of the drone opportunity or not?

By ​Jason Mueller

By Shikha Krishna

By Elizabeth Mathew

By Shikha Krishna

Mr Kedar Soman had a WebEx session with Dr Prabakhar Patil : Ex-CEO LGChem Batteries.
Here Dr Patil gives us amazing insights into Lithium-Ion batteries and what is in store for the future.

By Kamlesh Mallick

The National Institution for Transforming India, also called NITI Aayog, a Government of India policy think-tank setup by our Prime Minister has declared that Accelerated adoption of electric and shared vehicles could save $60 billion in diesel and petrol costs while cutting down as much as 1 gigatonne (GT) of carbon emissions for India by 2030.
The organization released a report that establishes a vision for the future of India’s mobility system and also ​defines a change model to support rapid scaling and deployment of solutions.

Jill Scott
Posted with permission from ​saveonenergy.com

"Everybody recognizes that if you can make very efficient electric motors, you can make a quantum leap forward." - James Dyson 

The electric motor has become a little more well known and appreciated over the past few years with its improving integration into electric cars.
With most people understanding and appreciating the impact that their pollution has on the climate, there has been a greater demand for auto manufacturers to create cars that can help to improve our environment, or at the very least, do less harm.
It is through this demand for growth and development that some of the world’s greatest inventors have refined the electric motor to now work better and be more efficient than it ever was before.
Let us understand this wonderful innovation that is propelling the electric vehicle revolution.

​By Nikhil Parchure

As electric cars gain momentum another type of revolution is hitting automotive industry. That revolution is connected car revolution. It may not be talked about as much as electric cars but this revolution will come to all cars faster than electric technology.
​Although the economics of electric car are becoming viable, it is still a long way to go before 100% of cars produced will be electric.
But I can see in next 10 years all cars will have intelligence for Car to Car communication. This will be a huge deal for automotive industry as cars will communicate to each other and share sensor data and avoid collisions, address traffic congestion and assist in emergency response by informing authorities automatically. 

By Kamlesh Mallick

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!  That is how you feel when you first ride an electric cycle! Hang on! Did u say electric cycle?  Yes indeed a cycle with a motor, controller and a battery that does some pretty neat magic! Everyone who rides one, has a BIG smile on their faces!  I myself am a big fan of these! 
​I have a theory on why everyone smiles when they ride one - Its the instant torque of the electric motor that give gives an instant pickup, which in turn gives you a instant high that makes your brain feel elevated for few seconds! :) 
Anyway this is a blog on electric cycles, which have started to hit the Indian market. ​Read on to know more!

Sanjay Prakash & Soumya Prasad

A common criticism of electric vehicles regarding emissions is that they simply transfer the CO2 emissions to the power plant. The obvious argument is that the grid power is produced from a variety of means - like hydro, wind, geothermal, nuclear, solar, etc. that involve no CO2 emissions. PluginIndia wrote a blog few years back trying to dispel many myths associated with electric vehicles. ​But this time, how about getting our hands dirty. We work out some calculations to show that electric vehicles, even if powered by electricity generated by coal powered plants (majority of electricity generated in many Indian states still comes from Coal), are much more efficient than oil based vehicles and as a result release less CO2 emissions. 
This article is based is on a writeup by Mr Elon Musk, founder on Tesla Motors (link here). We have presented this with new calculations based on Indian conditions and also have documented multiple use cases.

Kamlesh Mallick

Imagine charging your EV in about 5 minutes.  Imagine a battery that never degrades. Imagine a not worrying about range.
Super capacitors can make this all happen!   

By Kamlesh

The best practices used to charge batteries of gadgets like laptops, can also apply to the lithium-ion batteries of electric cars and e-bikes.  If you have an EV, it makes sense to follow these bests practices, as lithium-ion batteries for automobiles can be very expensive.  You might want to keep them healthy and happy for many years. 

By Nikhil Parchure

Hydrogen is always touted as a next generation fuel that can replace gasoline. Researchers across the world are developing highly efficient and long lasting fuel cell systems. These fuel cell systems are replacing diesel generators and gasoline engines in cars and diesel engines in trucks and buses. Car makers such as Hyundai, Honda, Toyota and Volkswagen are pouring tremendous amount of money in the research and development of hydrogen fuel cell cars. So now there is emerging competition between electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to become default zero emission system. Fuel cell vehicles have zero tailpipe emission just like a standard electric car but there are significant differences between these two vehicle types. These differences need assessment as that will decide whether future zero emission transportation will be fuel cell or battery electric.

By Kamlesh Mallick

The petrol heads, the EV cynics and people who are resistant to change make an argument that EV's are as dirty as ICE based vehicles! This is what the Petrol lobby will tell you - "Your electric car is a coal powered car. There is nothing green about it!" - "What about the electricity? Electric vehicles will ensure our grid will one day collapse!" - "What about the batteries? Materials in them are toxic for the environment!!  So using electric vehicles is not an option!"
We at PluginIndia will provide answers to these questions, you might encounter when you meet such people who argue just for the sake of arguing!