Ola Wants a Million Electric Rides on India's Roads by 2021 (bloomberg.com)

Ride-hailing company Ola, Uber's fiercest Indian competitor, wants to roll out 10,000 electric three-wheeled rickshaws within a year and a million battery-powered vehicles by 2021. From a report: The startup run by ANI Technologies said it's in policy discussions with several state governments, and is talking with potential partners from automakers to battery producers. It aims to build out an existing pilot project in the central Indian city of Nagpur, where Ola's first EVs have already traveled more than 4 million kilometers. Ola's ambitions dovetail with the Indian government's objectives. Prime Minster Narendra Modi plans to significantly increase the number of new energy vehicles on the road. The power ministry in March said Modi had directed senior ministers to ensure that by 2030 most vehicles in India would be powered by electricity.

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Have some actual information Ola not doing well

[Crashmarik]

https://in.reuters.com/article...

Insight: Ola's sputtering India electric vehicle trial a red flag for Modi plan

Clean energy stories on Slashdot aren't dog whistles, they're electrodes planted in the pleasure centers of the gullible.

Re:Have some actual information Ola not doing well

[blindseer]

From the article linked in parent:

Getting infrastructure built in the world's biggest democracy where a not-in-my-backyard culture proliferates is a barrier for a lot of businesses in India. And it is proving to be the same for charging stations - Ola was forced to close one in Nagpur last year after protests by residents angered by traffic jams caused by drivers. It took more than five months to get government clearances to begin operating another station.

Seems they want to blame this on democracy. Well, what's the solution then? Remove just "a little bit" of democracy? I have a problem with that. It's never "a little bit".

Maybe what they need is a government that can properly plan the roads and other infrastructure so the people won't complain. This is not something that can be forced by government. People have to want the electric cars. Paying people to take them, when there isn't sufficient infrastructure to support them, is going to create a distaste for them in the future. Traffic jams around charging stations is a symptom of a problem, not the problem itself. Had they allowed this to develop more naturally with market forces then this would not have happened. What they have now is perhaps an entire generation with a bad experience with electric vehicles, because they forced them on the market too soon.

The electric car industry may have just shot itself in the foot, and it may take decades before people lose the memory of this experience.

Good job! You may have just stalled the electric car industry in India by 20 years!

Re:That's easy, build it and they will come

[dehachel12]

Synthesizing hydrocarbons closes the carbon loop on burning those hydrocarbons, we won't be releasing more carbon into the environment from long separated off reservoirs deep in the earth. We can take the carbon from the air and water, make fuel from it, and when it's burned it goes into the air again for more fuel later. It's as carbon neutral as any electric car.

making hydrocarbons from electricity and then burning them in a car is horribly inefficient. (burning fuel only puts about 20% of its energy into kinetic energy, while transmitting into from electricity station to storing it in a battery and then converting it into kinetic energy has about 70-80% efficiency)

Re:If you are the Indian driver

[Rei]

Normally I'd write a rebuttal concerning charge times - but in the case of India, honestly, you're spot on. India has been doing this "We want a ton of electric vehicles.... but we're not going to do anything to prepare for them or encourage them" game. I mean, they added a subsidy, but it's very small, and only applies to local manufacturers, which are way behind the game on EV tech investments. The country has put way too little into charging infrastructure, and their anticompetitive trade policies (such as the local sourcing policy) have kept a number of manufacturers out, because EVs tend to have very custom parts lines.

India could be another China when it comes to EVs, but they're going to need to get their act together if they want it to be anything more than talk.

Re:That's easy, build it and they will come

[AmiMoJo]

You are looking at it from a developed world perspective.

I was in China earlier this year. Millions of electric scooters everywhere. It was actually quite scary - silent, often in a poor state of repair, people don't use their lights or seem to have any concept of how to drive safely, often rode them on the pavement... All electric, and extremely popular.

Makes sense for China. They are mostly lead acid batteries, which are very cheap. Limited range is fine for going to work etc. People have strong family ties so can share a longer range car between themselves. Electricity is cheap too, and available everywhere, and they understand that it is cleaner too. The vehicles themselves are very low maintenance because there are no gears, no spark plugs, no oil, no starter motor, no alternator.

India will be the same. Cheap, low range EVs that don't cost much to run. Probably using a lot of recycled batteries from first world countries, because we are crazy enough to throw them away. Battery prices are falling fast anyway.

What ? In India?

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

There is a reason India leads the world in UPS and battery backups.

Indian homes use truck batteries and inverters to power their home during their periodic, regular, announced and un announced power cuts. Indian grid is woefully inadequate to handle charging loads of so many battery cars.

I read a piece on Karachi, Pakistan, (I know Pakistan is a different country, not a province of India) where families gets into their air-conditioned cars and drive around aimlessly to escape the mid day heat when the scheduled power cut kicks in. I am sure that is common in India too.

It could take a while for battery cars to take hold in India. Capital is very expensive in India. But the government is likely to encourage it. India is self sufficient in dirty coal, but needs to import oil for petrol and diesel. From balance of trade and foreign exchange perspectives, they really would like pure electric cars to take hold.