ETAuto Originals: Why won�t India embrace electric vehicles now?

9 September, 2020

New Delhi: There�s a persona in driving electrically-charged vehicles. Not just for the sake of a cleaner environment, but the sheer acceleration and the sporty performance. This makes it thrilling in a machine that behaves like a tamed animal on the highway resonating as the future of mobility.

We are almost a decade away from the electric vehicle revolution and it�s a nightmare to drive an electric car in India now. The vehicle I had was an SUV, which ideally has the most preferred shapes in the country. But it delivers fewer kilometres to every charge on its bulky weight; thus restricting travel options.

I opted for inter-state travel to have the actual driveway experience and took the electric SUV on the weekend to Chandigarh. The Delhi-Chandigarh distance is manageable, but my multiple limitations made it even harder to drive.
As I reside on the fourth floor, I have to outsource my charging requirements. So I had to get the vehicle charged at a friend�s house in south Delhi, which added a few extra kilometres to the distance and thus took it beyond the reach of the battery pack. The 272km range just breached the 280-km distance to Chandigarh from this south Delhi address.

To cut short my anxiety, I inquired with all the midway dealers to log some additional kilometres to my driving distance. No respite as is the case in Delhi too. Both the power companies, Tata Power and BSES, do not have charging facilities for the latest Type-2 chargers that power most of the new-age vehicles. So, left with no option, I preferred to take the risk of being stuck midway if I ran out of charge.

Chandigarh is roughly 257km from Connaught Place and travelling is always a struggle with the half-built National Highway 24 that is perpetually under construction even as users pay the highest toll across any other road from the national capital. The probability of perpetual congestion takes a brutal toll on the stored electric power.