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PluginIndia Electric Vehicles

Bullock Carts OK! E-Rickshaws No Way!

23/8/2014

11 Comments

 
by Johnson
From time immemorial all kinds of vehicles have been traveling on Indian roads... Right from the roads in Rameshwaram lying in the southern-most tip of the Indian peninsula to the highest motor-able road in the world - Khardung-La lying in the northernmost Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. All kinds of vehicles have been running on these the roads. But a certain lawyer in the High Court pleaded that this particular vehicle is dangerous for the well-being of all Indians, and the Judge conveniently ordered Electric Rickshaws to be banned. Welcome to incredible India!

Picture
Electric Rickshaws in their hay days on Delhi streets. They could save US $ 4 billion every year!
Thus literally the status of these electric rickshaws are “hung” as there will not be any decision very early especially since such a situation favors certain CNG producing company and a CNG/Petrol Rickshaw manufacturing company. I am afraid the poor Electric Rickshaw could be put to death in the very same year (2014) Clean Energy and Electric Vehicles were supposed to get a great “up-liftment”.

What is surprising is that these clean energy vehicles were introduced by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi in 2010 but now the High Court has over-ruled it and ordered to take these vehicles off the Delhi Roads. 
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I drive regularly and I have traveled along the Indian roads and for the life of me I cannot understand how an electric rickshaw can be labeled “dangerous Vehicle” and “banned till further notice”. All this while I thought Petrol and CNG vehicles were dangerous. Really dangerous! As the fuel is highly inflammable and can explode and set themselves and the vehicles nearby on fire. Now these I would label as dangerous! 

What criteria were used to decide the e-rickshaw is dangerous? To ban that particular vehicle from running on Roads in Delhi? Have we EVER banned any vehicle in the history of the Country? So for the first time in the history of the country a certain type of vehicle gets banned from using the roads. All these questions raises doubts in a person’s mind regarding the integrity of the ban?

How is E-Rickshaws (ER) more dangerous than say a cycle or a handcart or a bullock cart? There is no way an ER is going to ram into a car and dent the car beyond repair. Then what is the danger? The danger is, if at all there is one, it would be of some truck or car crashing into the electric rickshaw. Then who is at fault? Is it the rickshaw or the is it the truck being driven irresponsibly?  It is obviously the truck's fault. There will always be such accidents. There are other far slower or faster moving vehicles on the roads than ER. But if the rickshaw is modified to run quicker (over 25kmph) then that too is considered unlawful? Thus slow ER's are banned and faster rickshaw's are unlawful. Well so now the court has decided we all better stick to petrol and CNG!

Picture
You can see in the first image an auto rickshaw, bullock cart and cycle rickshaws being operated but the better vehicle in make, in look & in ride quality sadly is being banned.
Many people do not realize this but Electric Rickshaws (ER) are the most useful EV technology. Call it Jugad technology or whatever... the design of the ER is very straight forward and simple. It gets you from point A to point B in a simple method. Right now the design of the ER is very basic and it an be improved a lot. One company has even put solar roof so that there is not only shade but the battery gets charged on the go and even when the ER is waiting for passengers. The ER can move more people (6 to 8 passengers) than a car and at the same time it is 200 % less expensive than a car.  If the e-rickshaws are manufactured on a large scale then the price could come down by half. The biggest advantage of ER's is that the engineering is very frugal. The fact that Rickshaw and Taxis run almost 24 hrs a day is another advantage that they need huge fuel quantities and changing to electric means huge savings. 
What a shame! Instead of promoting the use and development of such new technology we are using ancient laws to ban the technology!

First of all the automobile laws are ancient and in this case the decision to ban them have been taken just because of a single accident that happened on Delhi street. Due to our self induced blindness we do not let research and development of new technology happen locally. This is a very good case where the boundaries of the unorganized sector has merged with the corporate sector seamlessly. We saw that the unorganized sector is unorganized so we decide to ban it instead of organizing it. We, or rather our government didn't bother to organize it in four years from 2010. The onus should have been on the government to draft new laws and till then the vehicles could have operated. The drivers are always ready to comply with the Govt rules. But the Govt has not formed ANY such rules. Once the rules are set there will be more development in this sector. But all this will happen once some other country has taken the lead. Then we keep complaining of brain drain. How can we use ancient radio laws of 1950 to govern the latest satellite TV channels?

If you look in to the case you will realise the mistake is more of the sweet shop owner than the electric rickshaw. In this incident a 3yr old boy got knocked into a boiling sugar syrup being kept on the footpath which is on the main road. This was an accident waiting to happen. If the child was knocked in by a bus or a car would they have banned all buses and cars? Is this not the height of stupidity? Or was it an easy point used to kill the electric rickshaw?
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8 Seater Electric Rickshaw with Solar Panel roof with Lead Acid Battery. Car companies should learn a thing or two from such vehicles.
The below income and expense is take from this blog. After random cross checking I can assure the figures are true.

“Working from 8am to 5pm daily, Ravi revealed he earns around 900 Rs per shift, of which 300 Rs is spent on the hire of the auto rickshaw and 200 Rs on ‘CNG’, taking home 400 Rs daily”. Meaning in 8 hour shift he spends 55% on daily expense which is a major expense this he could actually share between the passenger and himself which could make transportation cheaper by 25% if not by 55%.

Another angle is the cost he pays for CNG is Rs 200 in 1 shift. Most of the rickshaws run in at least 2 shift if not round the clock. Thus cost for fuel per auto rickshaw per day is Rs 400 and Rs 146,000 per year (Rs 400 x 365 days – rickshaw drivers do not like to take holidays).
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This was in June 2014 - Sorry Sir... the ban is still in effect in August 2014.
In spite of the situation being unsure on the last count in Delhi (Dec 2013) there were around 100,000 Electric Rickshaws and India has at least 20 large cities. Thus India has a potential of  a minimum of 2,000,000 auto rickshaws. Thus if we multiply Rs 146,000 x 2,000,000 autos we get a saving if Rs 292,000,000,000 which is equal to a savings of US$ 4,866,666,666! (India can save US $4.86 Billion EVER YEAR). It is very important to put this into perspective as the remittance to India which is the highest in the world is around US$ 70 billion. If all taxis and auto rickshaws in India are switched to electric then the saving would easily be around US$30 billion. This is HUGE and far more capable to change the economy of the country than anything the Finance Minister of the country can ever dream of. Implementation of Electric Vehicles is going to be paramount in bringing down inflation.

How can we ban a technology which provides the country huge relief from imported fuel dependence just because a vendor kept the boiling pan in the footpath of a busy street!!??!! Not only do E-Rickshaws benefit the country but it also provides comfort for the passenger as there is lesser vibration and noise and the vehicle owner also is able to save more money rather than purchase expensive fuel and also save on maintenance charges. On top of this electric rickshaw is good for the environment.
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5 Simple rules... but strangely not yet implemented in 4 years since 2010!

So let me end by saying that a vegetable knife can cut vegetable and at the same time cut a finger. But lets not let it block our vision and our mind to be so narrow as to ban the “knife”. The ban on the Electric Rickshaw has to be revoked at the earliest and the street vendor who left his frying pan in the footpath has to be heavily penalized cause if the pan was not there the child would merely have fallen on the ground and at worst wounded itself. So in this case I really don't see how the judge finds the vehicle owner guilty other than he abandoned the vehicle and escaped in fright. Another thing that needs to be done is that these vehicles should be given number plates so that they can be fined in case of flouting traffic rules and the electric rickshaw drivers should have driving license. The successful integration of the Electric Rickshaws in India will start a new chapter in the economy of India and this should be carried out on a war footing.

What is most funny is that Bajaj Auto-rickshaw company, the sole producer of autos in Indian "Raj" never expected such a design of electric rickshaws to come up and even further the successful acceptances of the drivers and passengers of such a vehicle design. Makes me wonder if they even have a R&D department? 

For those who are big supporters of Li-Ion battery and say Li-Ion is the latest in battery technology and that alone can save EV's, I would like to show them the story of Electric Rickshaws which can transport 8 passengers while Tesla Motors or Mahindra Reva are having a tough time transporting just 4 passengers.

Some of the Electric rickshaw makers in India:
http://www.devante.in/
http://www.saeraelectricauto.in/solar-rechargeable-electric-rickshaw-1906979.html



11 Comments
Nithin Verma
26/8/2014 12:09:07 pm

Its Sad. I live in Delhi and i can estimate that wellbeing of around 50,000 individuals who depend on e-rickshaws for their livelihood will be affected by this.

But the judge has a point. Do you live in Delhi?
Ever since they were banned to operate there was a sigh of relief from traffic congestion virtually all over Delhi.
Is this not a fact that e-rickshaws have thrown traffic out gear at every place in Delhi besides being a very dangerous transport mechanism?

I kind of support this but also want government to speed up the legislation so that the livelihood of people is not affected.

Reply
Johnson
26/8/2014 04:42:56 pm

Yeah NITHIN sad! But I say the judge has no point. There are so many roads in Delhi and all over India with potholes, so many places that garbage doesnt get collected and due to that so many people loose their lives.... has anything ever got banned?

Each ER can carry about 8 passengers which is almost 3 times the capacity of 1 rickshaw. Meaning 100,000 ER can replace 300,000 rickshaws. Think about so much rickshaws off the road so much less air n noise polution.

Sad that all this is happening in the backyard of the so called "most solar-literate PM of the country" and even after forming the govt they have not made any policy for ERs. Even sad is the fact that the ban happened only acter the BJP govt came in power.

Wonder when is the aache din going to come? Or is aache din only for Reliance?...lol

Reply
Johnson
26/8/2014 06:07:46 pm

Lol...Nithin... I do not stay in Dilli. Have you travelled in EF? When you do please share your experience with us.

Regarding your point about ER being dangerous transport mechanism .... which would rate as the safest among hand cart rickshaw, bicycle rickshaw, poison spweing, noise ratelling autorickshaw and ER with added points for ride quality?

Reply
Ranjan Ray
27/8/2014 05:37:05 am

Hi Johnson,

Yes, the Govt. screwed up big time. However, that has always been the case with most of our country. We create our own problems, simply because we have not yet learnt to plan and organise ourselves in advance.

What most articles or media reports do not talk about the actual e-rickshaw issues are as follows:

1. The ER's are not dangerous vehicles by design but they are a safety hazard and menace by virtue of the people driving. Since these are essentially rickshaws, the govt. did not foresee that they should have a minimum age limit for the driver of these vehicles.

I stay in Noida where the ER's are not (yet) banned and I see 11-12 year old boys driving this vehicles. Last week one of them almost banged my e2o!

My point is that an ER should fall under the category of a 'motorised 3/4 wheeler similar to a scooter rickshaw or auto. Since the ER is ungeared, age liniency may be given at 16 years. But a driving license should be a must.

I mean would any sane person sit in any vehicle driven by a 12 year old? I think the answer is a big NO.

2. Secondly, safety of the occupant. Since the ER can be driven at 25 kmph, the safety of the passenger is not the best. I have sat in one of these and I have to say that the side handles are just not enough to ensure that I will fall off the side, especially if you are sitting facing backwards. There are obviously better when compared to cycle rickshaws but then that is no benchmark

3. Many drivers do not use front and rear lights at night, just to save on battery and that becomes a major safety issue.

4. I am sorry but the ER is not designed for 8 passengers. The ER should seat max. 4. 2 each on the seats. No passenger should be allowed on the driver seat. Anything more than 4 makes it dangerous and overloaded.

5. ER's have to be registered. There can be no two ways about this.

6. The present ER owners/drivers charge their vehicles mostly by stealing electricity or using the wire tap method. While this does not make the ER a dangerous vehicle on the road, it sure opens a box of many other issues.

Therefore, its not as easy as allowing or banning the ER. Like all other sustainable projects, the ER is a also a very workable solution for urban and rural mobility in India but ONLY IF careful planning is done and then implemented.

regards
Ranjan Ray
Delhi

Reply
Johnson
27/8/2014 11:31:21 am

Ranjan... agree 100% with all points raised. All these are small things which can be set right by bring in the Electric Rickshaw law.

This could be done in ONE WEEK.. the quality of the vehicle and its design which is very basic could improve with a lot of local competition.

but look at both parties... Congress & BJP govt... both are letting the issue drag... Even the High Court has got fedup and instructed the Government to start "functioning"... to get into action and put out a plan.... which they wont... because Reliance will loose approx 4billion US$ per year... hai ki nahi?



Reply
Viswaprabha
28/8/2014 07:59:09 pm

What is really hampering Indian EV?

Simple ignorance and timely exploitation by commercial interests.
It all distills down to the standard of our technical and social science education.
Even our Electrical engineers have no idea what good is MODERN electrical technology is, compared to a century old mechanical ICE technology when it comes to efficiency optimization.

Even our chemistry professors have never worked it out how much CO2 is produced when a single litter of bone oil is burnt. At first hearing they laugh it out when one reminds them that 700 grams of petrol can produce more than 2 kilograms of CO2! It takes some time to teach and convince them that the chemical equation is balanced!

Even our biology experts have no idea that CO2 can affect the pH of sea (or rain) water and a microscopic change in pH value can change whatever forms of life we see in this world, including the pollination, fertilization and the very ovulation of their own daughters!

Even the best politicians of our land have not had time to spend with a 'energy-crack' to listen that we are running a world worse than a bullock-cart age while we are actually in a position to show the world that it can possibly move on without even a drop of the magic potion called 'OIL'.

Even the worst stock market consultants are aware that they should make the hay while the sun shines. They know how to show it up that a 300 cc some oil-drinking junk thing is the hero of the road and why you should invest in that stock!

Indian EV future (rather the present) suffering?
Bang your heads! We are all still living a life 100 years obsolete, despite all that SHINING as seen on the TV !

Reply
Johnson
2/9/2014 10:55:24 am

well said Viswaprabha...

Look at how they keep telling (and the people believe) that the next war will be for water. Water can never be scarce resource as the world is surrounded by 70% water. Desalinization of water is simple and cheap process that produces both electricity and water...especially if Solar Thermal method is used.

Our politicians will never use it because it is cheap so the bribe percentage that they get will be just a fraction of what they could get from a company like Enron.

Reply
gem e rickshaw link
9/10/2014 03:33:14 pm

E Rickshaws are future in India

Reply
viswaprabha
9/10/2014 04:19:22 pm

Reply
rupang shah link
18/11/2014 09:16:53 am

I think banning of e rickshaw is not fare.There are many device which works on battery for e.g-Invert-er in house,mobile batteries which blasts but we use them regularly. So need to upgrade rules for electric vehicles and make our india pollution free.

Reply
Rupang Shah
21/11/2014 09:58:49 am

Yeah! Its very obvious that some "interest" want these e-rickshaws out of the roads. There are so many accidents by Buses, Cars, Trains but do they all get banned? But then why only this E-rickshaw?

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