This article and the video embedded, is intended to look at the perks of being an electric vehicle owner. It is not intended to denigrate CNG vehicle owners, who are doing their part, whether inadvertently or otherwise, to not use OIL and save the environment. I'm an electric car and a CNG vehicle owner myself.
In the above video, we showed you what a normal day is like while driving an electric car or a CNG car.
You must have noticed that Amit was a bit frustrated today. The long drive in his CNG car took a lot out of him. I, meanwhile, felt quite fresh at the end of the day. Why? Because I drive electric. I’m going to share some data with you, and I have Amit here as well, who'll jump in with some points of his own.
Charging an Electric at Home vs Filling Gas at CNG Pumps
Charging at home or using public charging points like the ones in malls is more convenient than enduring the long lines at petrol or CNG pumps. You guys saw how frustrated I was. If I had an EV, I could have just plugged in at home, but I had to stand in line and breathe in all that awful exhaust smoke.
The air that we breathe in cities is bad enough for our health. Imagine the effect of exhaust smoke!
Especially since you need to be healthy to change those tricky gears in a CNG car.
Ride Quality And Effort
Changing gears and managing the clutch can get quite exhausting, especially in heavy traffic.
Electric cars have no clutches or gears, so I have a smooth ride wherever I go. Plus, there are no vibrations and no engine noise, so the ride is super quiet.
Emissions
Let’s talk about emissions. Electric cars emit fewer CO2 emissions than CNG, petrol, or diesel cars. A common bit of criticism about EV's are that they are powered by grids that run on coal, which is as dirty as it comes.
However, here are some facts:
The number is even lower for a passenger car like a small hatchback, around 100 g/km. Links are given below
For Amit’s CNG car, the total CO2 emissions for today’s 40 km drive would have been around 4000 grams.
So, an electric car, even if it’s powered by a coal-powered grid, emits far fewer emissions than a CNG car. But a CNG car emits fewer emissions than a petrol or diesel car.
Economy
So thumbs-up on using a CNG! Also, electric cars are more economical on a daily basis than other cars. Amit’s CNG car provides around 20 km of range per kilogram. Amit filled up about 5 kg of CNG for today’s ride, which would give him about 100 kilometres range, In Mumbai, CNG costs Rs 45 per kg at the moment. So it cost Amit 90 rupees to drive 40 km. But my 40 km journey consumed around 4 units of electricity. At approximately 6 rupees per unit, that came up to only 24 rupees!
Plus, the mall I charged at in the afternoon offers free charging. Further, most businesses offer EV charging as a free value-add to their customers.
Final Words
None of this is intended to denigrate CNG cars.you’re driving a CNG car, you’re still doing your bit for the environment! If you cannot afford to buy an electric car yet or are not yet ready to take the plunge into the world of electric mobility, we implore you to at least consider a CNG vehicle! And we’re saying that as an electric mobility promotion channel! Why? Because when it comes to saving the environment, every little bit helps. However, if you do plan to buy an electric car, just go for it! There are affordable electric cars coming out in 2019 like Strom, which will cost around 4 lakhs. You can also buy an e2o Plus or a secondhand e2o. Premium models from Hyundai, Nissan, and Mahindra are on their way and will be here by 2019 or 2020. Tesla and Uniti are coming to India as well!
So don’t wait. Go electric!
Reference links
http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/CNG%20programme%20in%20India.pdf
https://www.climatetechwiki.org/technology/cng
http://www.pluginindia.com/blogs/calculating-well-to-wheel-efficiency-of-electric-vehicles
You must have noticed that Amit was a bit frustrated today. The long drive in his CNG car took a lot out of him. I, meanwhile, felt quite fresh at the end of the day. Why? Because I drive electric. I’m going to share some data with you, and I have Amit here as well, who'll jump in with some points of his own.
Charging an Electric at Home vs Filling Gas at CNG Pumps
Charging at home or using public charging points like the ones in malls is more convenient than enduring the long lines at petrol or CNG pumps. You guys saw how frustrated I was. If I had an EV, I could have just plugged in at home, but I had to stand in line and breathe in all that awful exhaust smoke.
The air that we breathe in cities is bad enough for our health. Imagine the effect of exhaust smoke!
Especially since you need to be healthy to change those tricky gears in a CNG car.
Ride Quality And Effort
Changing gears and managing the clutch can get quite exhausting, especially in heavy traffic.
Electric cars have no clutches or gears, so I have a smooth ride wherever I go. Plus, there are no vibrations and no engine noise, so the ride is super quiet.
Emissions
Let’s talk about emissions. Electric cars emit fewer CO2 emissions than CNG, petrol, or diesel cars. A common bit of criticism about EV's are that they are powered by grids that run on coal, which is as dirty as it comes.
However, here are some facts:
- First, if Abhishek switched to solar power (which is an option he can only have in an EV), he can run his car on nearly clean energy.
- Second, a large percentage of the grid is powered by coal plants. This results in CO2 emissions of about 32.13 g/km, factoring in power plant efficiency, transmission and distribution, etc. Please refer link below to understand the well to wheel data for an electric car and how this figure is arrived at. So for the electric car, the total CO2 emissions for today’s 40 km drive would be around 1,285 grams.
The number is even lower for a passenger car like a small hatchback, around 100 g/km. Links are given below
For Amit’s CNG car, the total CO2 emissions for today’s 40 km drive would have been around 4000 grams.
So, an electric car, even if it’s powered by a coal-powered grid, emits far fewer emissions than a CNG car. But a CNG car emits fewer emissions than a petrol or diesel car.
Economy
So thumbs-up on using a CNG! Also, electric cars are more economical on a daily basis than other cars. Amit’s CNG car provides around 20 km of range per kilogram. Amit filled up about 5 kg of CNG for today’s ride, which would give him about 100 kilometres range, In Mumbai, CNG costs Rs 45 per kg at the moment. So it cost Amit 90 rupees to drive 40 km. But my 40 km journey consumed around 4 units of electricity. At approximately 6 rupees per unit, that came up to only 24 rupees!
Plus, the mall I charged at in the afternoon offers free charging. Further, most businesses offer EV charging as a free value-add to their customers.
Final Words
None of this is intended to denigrate CNG cars.you’re driving a CNG car, you’re still doing your bit for the environment! If you cannot afford to buy an electric car yet or are not yet ready to take the plunge into the world of electric mobility, we implore you to at least consider a CNG vehicle! And we’re saying that as an electric mobility promotion channel! Why? Because when it comes to saving the environment, every little bit helps. However, if you do plan to buy an electric car, just go for it! There are affordable electric cars coming out in 2019 like Strom, which will cost around 4 lakhs. You can also buy an e2o Plus or a secondhand e2o. Premium models from Hyundai, Nissan, and Mahindra are on their way and will be here by 2019 or 2020. Tesla and Uniti are coming to India as well!
So don’t wait. Go electric!
Reference links
http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/CNG%20programme%20in%20India.pdf
https://www.climatetechwiki.org/technology/cng
http://www.pluginindia.com/blogs/calculating-well-to-wheel-efficiency-of-electric-vehicles
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