By Kamlesh Mallick

So the worldwide pandemic has crippled regular life and all of us are sitting at home. The PluginIndia team too is in lockdown! 
Bajaj are totally affected as local production is halted, along with supply from their vendors. We have got news that the Chetak electric scooter won’t be delivered anytime soon.
​And this news has really disappointed many of you.

By Team PluginIndia

Cellestial E-Mobility, a Hyderabad based startup has rolled out its first prototype electric tractor. This tractor is economical to operate, as powerful as a diesel tractor,
while consuming less energy. With features like with features like battery swapping, regenerative braking, AC charging, battery that can act as a UPS, this product will be very beneficial to the agriculture industry. The best part the electric tractor will be cheaper than equivalent diesel tractors.

We spoke to Mr Syed Mubasheer , founder of Cellestial E-Mobility and asked him some questions on this very interesting product.

Guest Post : Archit K​ from ​EternalGreen Innovation

By Atul Gopal

PluginIndia organized a EV tech talk at Chetak Experience Centre, FC Road Pune. The idea was to get eminent people from the industry to talk on EV Tech.
We had Eric Vas, who heads Urbanite Business Unit at Bajaj Auto. Will spoke about what it took to develop electric scooter the Chetak. 
Abhay Patwardhan, earlier head of research at Mahindra Electric, who is now heading a battery startup, he spoke about Battery Management Systems.
Tejsingh Gaekwad who heads Tag, an electric 3 wheeler manufacturer spoke about about why Lead acid batteries will continue to be relevant. 
Hemang Shah is founder EO Charging India, spoke about Charging Station business in India.

By Kamlesh Mallick

Many people have asked us about the long term costs with the Ather 450X and Chetak electric scooters compared to petrol scooters. Here is the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for a period of 6 years. 
This includes costs for everything - from fuel to part replacements to battery replacement to connectivity!
Hopefully this acts as a reference for many people not persuading you to go electric!

By Amit Gupta  & Raphae Halim

Let's take a look at the electric vehicle stories that are trending in February 2020. Amit and Raphae speak about demystifying availability of Lithium, they mention the serious and not so serious EV showcases at the Auto Expo. We examine the Ather 450X pricing controversy and look at the twitter happenings.
Finally we also look at some community contributors in the EV world!

By Team PluginIndia

By Team PluginIndia

Akhil Venkateshwaran‎ is an owner of the Hyundai Kona Electric SUV, based out of Bengaluru. He shared with us details of his 385km, Electric Car Road Trip from Bengaluru to Coimbatore on his Kona Electric. The PluginIndia team asked him some questions on his epic journey that shows electric vehicles offer incredible cost benefits during such trips.

By: Raphae Halim

By Kamlesh Mallick

Ather Energy has been doing a lot of outreach sessions with open houses in multiple cities, following the unveiling of the Ather 450X electric scooter. They have got a lot of negative publicity over the last couple of weeks due to their price hikes, monthly subscription fees for connectivity and unpopular power packs.
​We have documented all, in our popular podcast and we have also asked the question in our poll of the month for Feb 2020 (seen in our Homepage) and the response has been very critical of Ather.  
Despite having a slight leg sprain, i could not miss the opportunity to meet the Ather team and get their perspective of things and also take a look at the 450X.
​So this is what we learnt.

By Atul Gopal

Here is a photo blog of my quick trip to the 2020 Auto Expo in Greater Noida. Electric Vehicles was the focus for many companies, but many companies showcased EV's just for some PR without having any plans to launch them. Its very easy to find them out!
We wont go into the specs of each as the auto industry is notorious for showcasing concepts that will never see the light of day in terms of production. 
Let's have some colorful fun shall we!

Guest Post : Ajay Maurya from ​EternalGreen Innovations

Indian metropolises faced with the challenges posed by rapid immigration and pollution.  There is an urgent need to take care of micro-challenges being faced by early adopters of EV. The first wave of EV adoption will happen at B2B/commercial level by fleet operators and corporates for urban transportation. We can say with high certainty that successful EV's adoption will significantly depend upon how effectively a fleet operator can monitor and manage these EVs.

By Kamlesh Mallick & Raphae Halim 

So the entire PluginIndia team and the EV community watched the new Hamara Kal video few months back. What nostalgic and emotional feeling for all of us! I kid you not, that evening, our EV community group was discussing the video and re-watching it non stop! ​And then when we saw and rode the 2020 Chetak electric scooter for the first time, there was another wave of positive feelings that engulfed all of us - both the old and the new generation! It's hard to describe. Such things need to be felt! 
​In this article we will document our initial impressions on the Chetak electric scooter, the experience centre and the people we met.

By Kamlesh Mallick

By Strom Motors

Strom Motors an EV start up based out of India is all set to launch Strom-R3, a reverse trike all electric urban mobility solution. Strom-R3 is the first reverse trike vehicle to receive homologation certification in India. Strom Motors was the winner of the coveted Spirit of Manufacturing Award at TiECON Global Summit held in November 2019 at New Delhi, India. Strom-R3 has received widespread recognition including as a top 10 startups by Government of India in early 2018 and by Economic Times.