Can electric cars outdrive conventional cars in India? Discover how EVs are changing the way we move
“Who killed the electric car?”
That’s a movie released by Sony Pictures at the Sundance Film Festival on 28 June, 2006. Watch it when you’re on a screen next time. The movie is about the General Motors EV 1 car which was available in California in the mid-1990s after the California Air Resources Board passed a rule called the zero emission vehicle mandate. A zero emission vehicle is one that does not emit exhaust gas or other pollutants when it is running.
For something to be killed, it must be alive once. You guessed right. There is nothing new about electric vehicles. They have been around for a while. In fact, the first real electric car was built in 1884 by English inventor Thomas Parker. Before that, several types of crude electric carriages existed in the 1820s and 30s.
But they were not as common then as they are now. So, what are electric vehicles? Why are they called electric vehicles? The answer to that question is simple. They run on batteries! Much like our phones and laptops. In comparison, the conventional cars and scooters run on engines, or internal combustion engines (short form – ICE).
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Internal combustion engine is a heat engine where petrol/diesel and air are burned inside a small chamber to create a high-pressure gas mixture which drives the engine's moving parts. The parts, in turn, drive the vehicle.
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Is that the only difference between electric and ICE vehicles? They are actually very, very different. The heart of an ICE vehicle is an engine. Whereas EVs don’t have a heart and they run on a battery and a motor. Can they be called heartless then? But is that a bad thing? Most certainly not.
Since EVs do not have an engine, they have no emissions, whereas ICE vehicles release loads of fumes from their exhaust pipes which leads to air pollution.
EVs are far more efficient than ICE vehicles. This means they can convert a higher percentage of energy into usable power to move the vehicle. ICE vehicles are less efficient and lose a lot of energy as heat and friction.
Electric vehicles are much simpler in design. ICE engines typically have hundreds of moving parts and are more complex while EVs have a much simpler design with about 20-30 moving parts. In fact, you can make one yourself.
With so many moving parts, ICE vehicles experience more wear and tear, which means they require regular maintenance, and sometimes, even repairs that are costly. In comparison, electric vehicles make fewer trips to the service centre and have longer lives.
EVs are quiet and far smoother to drive. ICE vehicles experience more noise and vibration, especially when they accelerate. In fact, EVs are so unusually quiet that automakers are working on creating fake engine sounds to make them noisy. This will not only help drivers feel they’re driving a real vehicle, it will also help with pedestrian safety. Often, pedestrians do not hear an electric vehicle, especially when there is other road noise, and don’t move out of the way. This leads to accidents. For pedestrian safety, some countries have regulations mandating that all EVs must emit sound at low speeds. The Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) is developing a new vehicle alert system for the purpose.
There’s a catch there. EVs have imperfections.
Cost: EVs are far more expensive than ICE vehicles. For example, the price of a Tata Nexon car starts at Rs 9 lakh, while its electric version is priced at almost Rs 15 lakh. Insurance premium (big word alert!) for the ICE version is Rs 36,000 while the electric version’s premium is Rs 60,000. Since the upfront cost of EVs is high, the government has been trying to reduce its cost with incentives to make it affordable. In some countries, like Norway, the ICE vehicle has such high taxes that EVs turn out to be cheaper!
Difficult to charge: Since EVs run on batteries, they have to be charged like phones and laptops. The problem is that there are not enough public charging stations. Most people charge at home. But if they are outside and their battery needs a quick top up, there have to be enough charging points around. Battery usage is typically dependent on weather, vehicle weight, tyre condition and battery health, among others. If it’s too hot and the AC is turned on at full blast, the battery will likely be spent earlier than it would otherwise. If it’s too cold and the driver has to run the heater, it too has a similar effect on the battery. This happens in ICE vehicles as well. But when fuel is needed for an ICE vehicle, there are plenty of filling stations to get to. With EVs, that is not the case. EV drivers have to plan their day with a lot of care to ensure that they are not left on the road with a depleted battery.
Heavy vehicles require more power to move and that power is drawn from the battery. Similarly, a worn out tyre will always use more energy, thus depleting the battery. In addition, as batteries grow old, they lose their capacity to get charged fully and they may require more energy to operate.
Bad roads don’t help: Driving uphill or on rough roads requires more energy than driving on flat and smooth roads. It is useful to choose efficient routes that can help use minimum battery. This type of conscious driving can help batteries last longer and provide good ‘range’ or mileage.
EVs are not only good for the environment because they generate zero emissions and can help make the air cleaner. They also have lower running costs. Charging an EV is far cheaper than filling an ICE vehicle fuel tank.
To understand this better, let us imagine we have two cars. One is an electric vehicle, like Tata Nexon EV, and the other is a petrol version of the same car. The EV has a 35 kWh battery that can cover an average distance of 60 km/day (stay focused!) on a single charge. The petrol version has a 44 litre fuel tank and can run 17 km/litre.
Hypothetically, if the charging rate of the EV costs Rs 10 per unit of electricity, then the per kilometer cost would be around Rs 1.10. In comparison, the petrol version might cost Rs 6.60 per km. This means running an EV is far cheaper than running an ICE vehicle.
With low operational costs, the money spent in buying the vehicle effectively pays off if you use it regularly. Think about it, EVs don’t make any noise, don’t cost much in maintenance and offer an incredibly smooth ride. Don’t they sound a lot better than the cars we have on our roads?
Senior Programme Manager, Clean Air Programme, Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi
Illustrator, Art & Design, Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi.