In this year’s budget, the Government reduced the excise duty on electric cars from 8 per cent to nil. Recently the Government repeated the same with 2 and 3 wheel electric vehicles. (Full article here) Why? Well, if one were to believe the advertisements, this is because the Government wants to promote these “eco friendly”, “zero pollution” vehicles. Just open any electric vehicle manufacturer’s website and you will see these words laced all over the site.
Well, that might be true if one were to compare electric vehicles with carbon dioxide emitting vehicles. However, I seem to have been bitten by the recent bug of measuring everything by its carbon footprint. Considering that most of the power produced in India is from hydro carbon fuels I fail to see how these vehicles are eco friendly. Just because you choose to be blind to the technology that brings the electricity right to your doorstep it does not cease to exist. Add to that the fact that we are an energy deficient nation, I fail to see the rationale in promoting electric vehicles.
I see a lot of similarities between ethanol blended fuel and these electric vehicles. Ethanol blended fuel was supposed to be environmentally friendly since it used natural component that could be regenerated. However, this has a hand in the spiraling food prices as food crops like corn were diverted to produce ethanol. Similarly agricultural land meant for food crops began to grow crops that were in demand to produce this “bio-fuel”.
As and energy deficient nation and one that meets its electricity needs primarily through fossil fuels can we really afford to promote electric vehicles?
Also posted at http://desicritics.org/2008/05/11/140745.php
4 comments:
Do you have any numbers on carbon footprints of vehicles running on hydrocarbons Vs vehicles running on electricity ? I ask this because hydrocarbons aren't the only way to generate electricity. Though it's the widely used method right now.
Personally I prefer bicycling when the distance is less than 5km. I feel we should work towards promoting efficient public transport and develop the infrastructure rather than providing band-aid solutions such as subsidizing electric vehicles.
Thoughts?
Dont have any exact numbers. But logically it doesn't hold out.
1)India's generation of electricity from renewable energy sources are minuscule.
2)Add to that transmission losses in India are huge.
3)There is the conversion from chemical energy to mechanical energy to electric energy to mechanical energy with each having its own conversion loss
4)Consumers dont like to pay more for electricity as witnessed by the uproar against the proposal by private electricity providers to increase rates in Bombay / Delhi
P.S. also posted at http://desicritics.org/2008/05/11/140745.php
It's like this:
1) Like 'walker said (lol!), electricity can be made from any source and so this arguement has limited applicability, depending on region-wise factors.
2)The transmission losses are huge in comparison to those of western countries. This is not a burden on the owner of the plug-in vehicle, as evidenced by the low Rs/Km numbers.
3)The conversion numbers, on the whole, must include the significant efficiency advantage of mass-producing electricity (at the power station) vs. home-made power (in the engine). This is comparable to buying an apple from the store (plug-in hybrid) and trying to grow an apple tree at home just to eat one apple (petrol engine).
4) In Bombay at least, people are very good at numbers. They can add up petrol bills and electricity bills into (what is now comman parlance on bijness TV) "energy bills." Besides, most people just take the metro. It's intercity, rural, and bulk transport that are not addressed by EVs. But nevertheless, they can do their part in easing intracity travel expediture.
And to add,
5) What does it cost (the environment) to build one of these lead-spewing, plastic-coated, oversized childrens' toys (batteries included)?
Hey, thanks for the great info..I was looking for the info. to help me make some important decisions. Thanks for all your help.
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