Sustainable Energy: Electric Vehicles in India - Report Analysis

This report provides an executive summary on sustainable energy, focusing on the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) in India. It delves into the current state of EV technology, including the types of EVs used and the advancements in battery technology. The report assesses the impact of EVs on India's energy system, including potential power demand, effects on the electric grid, and the implications for other fuels. It explores the barriers and opportunities for EV adoption, considering technological developments and future prospects. The report also includes personal views based on available evidence, concluding with the potential for EVs to reshape India's energy landscape and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. It highlights the challenges and the increasing production of EVs, and the government initiatives to promote the use of EVs.

Sustainable Energy

Executive Summary
Sustainable energy is energy which has the potential to meet our energy demands without
harming or effecting environment. This report has discussed about the alternatives of petrol and
diesel road vehicles and the capacity of the technology to replace the conventional vehicles. This
has included the current state of technology of electric vehicles which presently exists in India
and has also discussed the capabilities of a country in improving such technology. This report
has also included that impact of electric vehicles on the electric systems or different energy
networks of India and on other fuels. It has also been discussed in the report what are the barriers
and opportunities of adoption and implementing such technology in India and also technological
developments made at preset and developments to be made in the future. This report also
included a personal views related to the technology which are based on various evidences.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Current state of technology used.................................................................................................1
Impact on energy system and other fuels....................................................................................3
Barriers and opportunities............................................................................................................5
TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENTS..................................................................................................6
OPPORTUNITIES..........................................................................................................................8
REFLECTION.................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Sustainable energy may be defined as a principle in which people use the type of energy
which is capable to meet the current energy needs without compromising the ability of future
generation in order to meet their own energy needs. Sustainable energy is a form of a energy
which meets today's energy demand without putting without the danger of getting expired. There
are two pillars for using sustainable energy strategies one is cleaner method of producing the
energy and another pillar is conservation of energy (Nykvist and Nilsson, 2015). There are
various sustainable energy technologies which are deployed for generating electricity, for power
transport systems, to cool or heat buildings and for other machined which are used in our daily
lives. When we are referring to the methods of using or producing energy the term sustainable
energy is generally used interchangeably with the term renewable sources of energy. In present
there has been rise in the demand of sustainable energy for various reasons like rise in pollution
across the globe, rise in population in order in to satisfy their energy needs and lack of non
renewable sources of energies like coal and petroleum. So, sustainable energy is becoming the
future of the world in meeting their energy demand which has increased its significance.
Present report is based in sustainable energy, the alternatives to petrol and diesel road
vehicles in India and to investigate the technology and its relationship with other parts of the
energy system (Habib, Kamran and Rashid, 2015). This report also includes current state of
technology and on the energy system and other fuels technology development, it barriers and
opportunities of the technology used.
MAIN BODY
Current state of technology used
Current technology which is used for the alternatives to petrol or diesel road vehicles is
Electric Cars. One of the major reasons for introducing such type of technology is rise of
pollution due to consumption of traditional sources of energy like petrol and diesel scarcity of
these fuels in various parts of the world. Petrol and diesel vehicles are responsible for causing
75% of carbon dioxide emission and 27% responsible for emitting green house gas emissions
across the world. So, petrol and diesel vehicles are also one of the major contributory factor for
causing global warming and this has lead to the serious environmental impacts. There has been
rise in pollution in India and automobiles are one of the main reasons for it (Liu and et.al.,
2015). The major cities which are under huge pollution in India is Delhi and it is the World's
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most polluted city and other cities which are affected by the pollution form Vehicles in India are
Bangalore, Kolkata and Mumbai. When it is talked about the pollution in India Vehicular
pollution is the top contributory factor. So, there is a need of using alternatives technologies in
India which is used in petrol and diesel vehicles and this lead to the rise of Electric cars which is
the best alternative for petrol and diesel vehicles.
Electric vehicles is also called as EV, is a technology in which one or more traction
motors or electric motors is used for propulsion. The power is generated in the electric vehicles
through a collector system which is an electricity form off vehicle source and even can be self
contained by using the sources like battery, solar panels or using electric generator in order to
convert fuel in to electricity (Hu, Zou and Yang, 2016). Electric vehicles are not only limited to
rail or roads but is also used on surface and under water vessels, electric spacecraft or electric
aircraft etc. Electric vehicle industry in India disclosed National Electric Mobility Mission Plan
(NEMMP) 2020 in 2013 in order to address the issues of National energy security, vehicular
pollution and growth of domestic manufacturing capabilities. Government of India has planned
to make major shift towards electric vehicles by 2030. At present India is not fully developed
with the technology used in electric vehicles and one of the major problem which is faced by
most of automotive industry is Batteries used in electric vehicles. Most of auto industry in India
in pursuit of batteries required for electric vehicles which can run longer and gets charged in the
short period of time. A Mumbai based start up in India which is known as Gegadyne Energy
claimed that they have come up with a battery that can be charged in 15 minutes and also aims to
make electric vehicles affordable to users. There are many other major players in electric vehicle
segment in India like Toyota, Mahindra electric, TATA motors and Maruti Suzuki which
introduced various electric models in India (Zhan and et.al., 2015). Currently there are three
major types of electric vehicles which is used in India such as those electric vehicles which are
directly power from the external power stations through power lines like train, trolley buses and
trolley trucks. Another type of electric vehicle which are used are the vehicles which are
powered from an external source but has the ability to store the electricity in the batteries,
capacitors or flywheels such as electric cars and bikes. Last type of electric vehicle is powered
by the on-board electric generators which are known as hydrogen fuel cells which is used for
electric cars or for the nuclear reactors for submarines. Also, another type of technology used in
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electric vehicles is that which are powered by an electric engine as well as internal combustion
engine such type of vehicles are called as hybrid vehicles.
The current technology used in electric vehicles in India is that electric vehicles uses DC
or AC motors and controllers and installations of DC is simple and less expensive. But
installation of AC allows to increase the power rating of electric vehicles as AC motors have a
feature that motor turns into generator and it delivers power back to the batter when breaks are
applied in the vehicle (Yin and et.al., 2016). The controllers of electric vehicles generally take
power from the batteries and then delivers that power in to the motor. The accelerator pedal is
connected to the pair potentiometer which renders a signal to the controller that how much power
is to delivered. In India, electric vehicle industry and Government of India have implemented a
number of initiatives in order to advance the use of electric vehicles like it has introduced a
concept of WAVE, which is a road trip of electric vehicles covering more than 2500 kilometres,
Delhi has established a number of charging points in more than fifty sub-station and Bangalore
had equipped a charging points in parking spaces in various malls and offices. Electric Vehicles
in India is at early stage, but there is increase in production of electric vehicles which is being
done in 2 wheeler segment and various electric vehicles manufacturers are putting their efforts to
improve their technologies and upgrade them so that the efficiency of electric vehicles in
increased within the country.
Impact on energy system and other fuels
Electric vehicles have a significant impact on the various energy system and other fuels
which are used within the country (Kouchachvili, Yaïci and Entchev, 2018). With the rise of
electric vehicles in India it would likely create a power demand crisis. The growth electric
vehicles would not cause large increase in the power demand in 2030 but it will potentially add
about one percent to total electricity and would require about 5 extra gigawatts (GW) of to
electric generation capacity. It is estimated that this amount could grow in the future by
approximately up to four percent in 2050 which will require additional 20 GW of electricity. So,
with the rise of electric vehicle in India would have a significant impact on the power grids
which may also include renewable sources of energy such as solar power and wind with some
gas powered generations. With rise of electric vehicles in India it can cause a significant increase
in the demand of total power and it also estimated that it drastically reshape the electricity load
curve. One of the major effect of it will be in the peak loads like summers which will reshape the
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electricity load curve as, people plug in their electric vehicles and they will turn for work and
after completing the working hours they will plug out the vehicle from the charging. This will
have a significant impact on the electric grids within the country. The impact of electric vehicles
on fast charging will significantly reduce the voltage stability of a system as charging of electric
vehicles totally depends on the particular charging type of electric vehicles which are installed in
each charging area, so it is important that each energy source of a country should able to support
the power requirements and expansion of electricity within the country.
It is to be noted that generally energy source comes from the conventional sources of
energy and then combine with renewable sources of energy thus there is a need of risk
assessment of the electrical distribution systems (Xiong and et.al., 2015). This risk of controlling
power on various distribution channels can be minimised by analysing the behaviour of electric
vehicles during charging and by converting the power of electric vehicle in to electric system. In
the future more than fifty percent of all the cars, motor cycles, buses and trucks will be electric
and which will lead to the less demand for liquid transport fuels. There may be many reason for
switching to electric vehicles like higher efficiency than a gas powered cars which can reduce the
dependency of the country on fossil fuels and even electric vehicles requires less maintenance
than petrol and diesel cars. Electric vehicles are considered as one of the best forms of
sustainable transportation, unlike petrol and diesel cars electric vehicles runs solely on electricity
which can result in the less consumption of fossil fuels and this will result in less emission of
pollution within the country. Rise in the sale of electric vehicles, falling in the cost of electric
vehicles and falling in the cost of battery would lead a global demand for oil under threat and it
will be in just matter of time that oil industries will under threat or will become obsolete.
However there are some challenges which are being faced making electric vehicles more
efficient and because of the number of challenges faced the treat appears to be less legitimate
(Zou and et.al., 2015) Though the sale of electric vehicles in increasing at a rapid rate but as
compared to global supply of vehicles, even the most aggressive projection could only make up
to 25% of Indian vehicles by 2050. With growth of electric vehicles markets, electric vehicles
will achieve better fuel economy and have lower fuel costs than conventional vehicles so this
will affect the efficiency of fuel economy of conventional cars. It has been estimated the electric
vehicles are 40 percent cheaper to drive than conventional vehicles which and this efficiency will
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increase in the future and this will have a strong impact on the oil companies. With the growth of
electric vehicles it could result in the decrease in the prices of petrol and diesels in entire globe.
So, it can be said the electric vehicles has a huge impact on the various energy systems
and other fuels as the market of electric vehicles is growing and there various opportunities
available for electric vehicles in India marketing and with rise of green environment initiative
and sustainability there will rise in sale of electric vehicles in India. This rise in market will have
a huge impact on the energy system of India.
Barriers and opportunities
There are many barriers and opportunities that exist in using of EV. So, it is necessary to
identify those barriers and opportunities so that strategies can be developed and implemented. In
India adoption of electric vehicles technology is a challenging task for the car manufacturers and
for the people of India. Even though automobile landscape is changing, but there are still major
barriers or challenges for adopting electric vehicles technology in India. The shift from
conventional vehicles to electric vehicles is caught in the imagination of industry and
policymakers. Some of the barriers of adopting electric vehicles technology in India is as
follows:
Infrastructure: One of the major hurdles for adoption of electric vehicles in India is non
availability of proper infrastructure which is currently available in India (Nosengo, 2016).
People driving conventional vehicles can go for long trips and can refuel quickly at any gas
stations. But in India the currently it is not possible as charging stations are only available in
major cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, etc which mean such can not be taken for the long
trips. So this is the one of the major barrier of adoption and implementation of this technology in
India.
Mind-set: It is one of the major barriers of adoption of electric vehicles in India, as most of the
people in India don't even think of electric vehicles while buying a new car. Electric vehicles
challenges the long held norms and practices of driving petrol and diesel vehicles and most of the
people even hasn't ridden a electric vehicle which is the one of main factors of non adoption of
this technology in India. Also, majority of people in India live outside the cities and such people
are totally out of the concept of electric vehicles and will take them lot of time in accepting this
technology and this is also one of the major barrier for fully implementation this technology in
India.
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Cost: At present of electric vehicles is very high and it can not be afforded by a common in India
as majority of people come under middle and low income level (Vassileva and Campillo, 2017).
Manufacturers of electric vehicles invest a huge amount of money in building a electric vehicles
and this cost is still high in India. So, these vehicles can not be easily afforded by potential
customers of India. Also, the cost of battery and power electronics which constitute almost two
third cost of electric vehicles. In these vehicles the most used battery material at present is Nickel
metal hydride (NiMH) and lithium ions which are costly. There are multiple factors in India like
demand and supply gaps and uneconomically low volumes result in the high price for
manufacturing electric vehicles. Even the cost of power electronics, battery and cost of motor is
7 times higher than IC engines. So, ex-showroom price of electric vehicles is still dependent on
the cost of battery pack which is the major barrier for such technology in India.
Challenges from the grid side: It is the point of discussion that how much power generated
come from traditional energy systems and how electric vehicles would be able to displace the
pollution form Indian cities. In 2030 with the increase of electric vehicles in India would increase
the demand of electricity in India nearly about 100 Terra watt hours or will increase four percent
of total power generation capacity so meeting such power growth demand is a challenging task.
(Knezović and et.al., 2017) Another challenge of electric vehicles is price of per charge for
electric vehicles which is a matter of concern, the amount of price which a private infrastructure
operator would levy it for the customers in order to remain profitable.
So these are the barriers for using such technology in India and is important for the
government and for the manufacturers to overcome these in order to decrease the pollution in
India and make it more sustainable.
TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENTS
There has been a high rise in growth of electric vehicles in the world. It is all possible due to
use of technology in producing vehicles. Moreover, there is high demand of technology in
present times. The use of electric vehicles is highly contributing in developing a sustainable
environment. It has resulted in decreasing pollution. For a developing nation like India it is very
necessary to reduce pollution level. This is because pollution level is increasing every year. In
recent times, there has been a lot of technological advancement occurred that has transformed the
world. It has provided platform for developing countries to use electric technology in developing
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electric cars. Also, ongoing technological changes have made it easy for companies to produce
electric cars.
Now, there have been many technical developments in using electric vehicles. There are many
companies engaged in manufacturing these vehicles. For example, Tesla is producing electric
vehicles by using lithium ion batteries (de Rubens, Noel and Sovacool, 2018). The company
have done in depth research in and heavily invested in using this technology. These batteries are
source of running electric vehicles. Alongside it, many other materials are been used in electric
vehicles. Basically, there are four types of batteries used in EV. They are lead acid, nickel
cadmium (NiCd), nickel metal hydride (NiMH), lithium ion. The lithium ion is highly used in
EV. However, nation lacks major and basic infrastructure that is need to support use of this
technology. Now, government is focusing on building and setting up battery charging station. In
addition to it, in various areas technical change is occurring.
Companies are emphasising on improving efficiency of batteries. They are trying to
make some modifications in batteries to increase its use for long time. So, in order to do so
research is been done on how to increase battery efficiency. Along with this, another change is
on increasing driving range of electric vehicles. Usually, in India due to improper infrastructure
of road the range of EV is low as compared to other countries. Normally, the average rage of EV
in India is 200-300 Km. Thus, by updating technology driving range of EV are enhanced. The
vehicles get exhausted and heated up. Due to this they are not able to cover long distance. It has
been analysed that technical change is reducing charging time. Generally, EV takes average time
of 8-10 hours to get fully charge. Thus, developments are done to reduce charging time. It is
done by setting high voltage power stations (Sarlioglu and Morris, 2015). This has benefited in
fast charging within 1-2 hours. Furthermore, changes are been done in order to improve safety of
EV. In this certain features are been added to make EV more safe. For example, various software
and applications are been installed in EV. In addition to it, many other measures are been taken
as well to ensure its safety. Besides this, changes are been done to minimise environmental
impact of EV. It is done by evaluating how EV is affecting atmosphere. Then, analysis is done to
identify what modifications can be done in EV so that impact is minimum.
In future it is expected that there will be many changes in electric vehicles. The technical
development will enable in bringing huge changes. With help of this, it will be support in
decreasing pollution level. The future will lead in making EV more affordable and efficient. It
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will support in increasing life of batteries and vehicles. In that ultra capacitors will be installed in
EV. Through this, electricity will be stored. The stored energy will be used to generate power
and running EV. Alongside it, another technical development is there will be wireless power
transfer. It will allow in transfer of power from one vehicle to another. This will ease in charging
of EV and saving time. By this people can help others in times of critical situation. Furthermore,
there will be fewer requirements of power stations. In future Artificial intelligence will play a
crucial role in EV (Bi, Kan and et.al., 2016). The implementation of AI in EV will make it easy
for people to drive car. Besides this, AI will reduce cost of manufacturing cars. Apart from it,
driverless vehicles will be produced. It will use machine learning for driving and operating on
roads. Alongside it, technological development will bring major modifications in EV. It will be
installed in vehicles that will result in manufacturing self driving cars. Furthermore, the use of AI
will ease in providing real time data. Beside this, use of robots in cars reduces costs. Also AI will
help in improving efficiency of batteries. Moreover, the traffic control system will be upgraded.
Hence, it can be evaluated that current technical changes in EV are related to improving
efficiency of batteries and increasing driving range. So, it has restricted people in buying EV.
However, there are other areas covered as well like reducing charging time, safety, etc. But in
future use of ultra capacitors and wireless power transfer will be a major breakthrough.
OPPORTUNITIES
India is a country where vast number of opportunities exists in terms of resources, market,
growth, technology, etc. in the era of technological development nation is considered as best for
implementing it. Similarly, in context of electric vehicles there are several opportunities that
exist. The country contains numerous resources through which energy can be generated. For
example – from solar energy, wind, etc. these all can be useful in developing a sustainable
environment. It has been analysed that the importance of sustainability in increasing day by day
in recent time. So, it has resulted in saving of fuel and reducing energy consumption.
In similar way, in other parts of world EV are been used in transport. This has provided a
platform for India to initiate this as well (Wesseling and et.al., 2015). The country is at
developing stage, so there lies opportunity to focus on sustainability through use of EV. The
main benefit that it is much better concept than any other. By making changes in transport
system pollution can be reduced.
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There are several drivers of growth of EV in India. As country is having a large network
of public transport system, it can be transformed through EV. It will allow people to use it and
save travelling cost. Besides this, technology can be used to monitor traffic and make changes in
it. It will be useful in reducing road accidents by providing safety. Moreover, use of EV in public
transport will save fuel cost. By this government can focus on other areas to maintain
sustainability. There will be high number of electric vehicles running on road it will ultimately
reduce air pollution level. However, in future with increase in scarcity of resources EV will
become a major concept. Many countries and government have already initiated this concept so
there will be high importance of EV in transport system. It is analysed that people are becoming
aware sustainability so they are also engaged in using EV instead of petrol and diesel vehicles. It
is evaluated that there are several laws and regulations formulated in which has guided people to
contribute towards sustainability.
It is evaluated that sustainability has emerged as concept where efforts are made to
provide green environment through implementation of different methods. EV will save other cost
as well such as maintaining of vehicle, etc.
REFLECTION
By evaluating the topic I analyse that electric vehicles are highly beneficial for developing
nation like India. This is because it helps in solving major problem that is reducing pollution
level. Also, in think EV provide a platform for country to create a sustainable environment. It
enable in reducing air pollution in metro cities. Already in many countries EV has benefited in
reducing pollution. The government have taken major steps in initiating this concept. Moreover,
the initiative taken by government to stop producing of diesel and petrol cars is highly
supporting in implementing this concept. Till 2030, a projection is made where at least 5- 7
million EV will be running. There will be around 40% of sales of EV till 2030. For this around
1.5 million kilometres road infrastructure will be developed.
In my view point there the current technical change such as increasing efficiency of
batteries, driving range, etc. will benefit in increasing life of EV. This will allow EV to cover
long distance. So, there will be no difference between petrol and diesel car. Thus, people will
prefer to buy EV instead of petrol cars. But for this it is necessary that government should
support in developing infra. I think that improving safety of EV will result in reducing accidents
and deaths. So, it will reduce road accidents. In my opinion there will be great positive impact on
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