Delhi with more cars than Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata put together naturally grapples with immense pollution and its consequent ill effects. It had almost 11 million vehicles on its roads two years back in 2018. Mumbai, in comparison came in a distinct second at nearly three and a half million vehicles in the beginning of 2019. If there is any city in India, indeed the world, where a case can be made out for an en masse migration to electric vehicles, it's Delhi.
A study by IIT, Kanpur found that vehicular pollution contributes as much as between 20 to 25% of the PM10 and PM2.5 particulate matter found in Delhi's air. It therefore makes eminent sense for a concerted and immediate move to zero emission electric vehicles to help make the air that the people in the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT) breathe actually breathable. That Delhi's vehicular traffic is a conglomeration of buses, cars, two-wheelers and three wheelers (including human powered rickshaws), means that the authorities have their task cut-out for them.
Electric Scooter-Bjorsa / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)
The first thing that strikes one is that cars, though an important components of Delhi's vehicular traffic lag behind two-wheelers in terms of sheer numbers. Of the 10.9 million vehicles on Delhi's roads 7,078,428 were two-wheelers in comparison to 3,246,637 four-wheelers(cars and jeeps) . In addition there were 1,13,074 three wheel auto-rickshaws plying on Delhi's roads. Therefore, any talk of making Delhi vehicles go fully electric has to factor in two wheel and three wheel vehicles comprising as much as 65 % of the traffic in the NCT of Delhi.
So, it follows that a major part of the electrification of vehicular traffic in Delhi would have to focus on electric two wheelers and the already ubiquitous three wheel electric rickshaws. Not surprising in a country where car ownership stands at a modest 20 cars per thousand people. To put this in perspective, the corresponding figure for the United States is 800 cars per thousand people.
Electric Car-Photo by Andrew Roberts on Unsplash
One would not be wrong is assuming that this is an idea whose time has come, in light of the growing popularity of e rickshaws as a "last mile connectivity" option.In fact, there are already an impressive 1.5 million e rickshaws on India's streets.
Considering that the largest number of petrol powered vehicles in the Delhi region are two-wheelers, the newly announced EV (Electric Vehicles) policy of the Delhi government is looking at incentivising the adoption of electric two-wheelers by the vast number of people who use these petrol driven vehicles to get around the city. The idea is to wean off as many as 50% of such people from using their conventional two wheel vehicles for electric ones by March 2023. A generous purchase incentive of Rs.30,000 ($403)for changing over to electric two-wheelers is expected to provide the much needed fillip to the drive.
The purchase of electric cars too has been incentivised by way of a Rs.5000 ($67) per k/Wh or Rs.150,000 ($2,020)on the purchase of a four wheeler. Besides, the road tax and registration fee waiver extended to all electric vehicles, too makes choosing electric mobility over conventionally powered vehicles very attractive. All in all the Delhi government is looking at registering an ambitious 500,000 electric vehicles in the coming five years.
How far Delhi is able to successfully implement the ambitious, but well-intentioned EV policy will in many ways decide the fate of the electrification of vehicular traffic in the rest of the way. Delhi had shown the way in the past with the launch and astounding success of the Delhi Metro rail network, under seemingly impossible conditions. This led to a veritable revolution across the Indian urban landscape, what with the Delhi Metro model being replicated across most of the major cities and towns in the country.
If Delhi could go fully electric with regard to its vehicular traffic in the next ten years, it would be a trail blazer amongst the megapolises of the world, with a cascading impact on cleansing the major population centers of the world of a major source of air pollution. This would set in motion a virtuous cycle comprising of a healthy workforce contributing more to the world economy, which in turn further improves their lifestyle. Besides, the industries supporting the new clean energy based transportation system would have created a whole new ecosystem of growth and prosperity minus much of the ill- effects associated with the old fossil fuel based one.
Of course, a lot would depend upon how clean the source of the electric power consumed by the largely electric transportation system would itself be, but that is the subject of another article.
A study by IIT, Kanpur found that vehicular pollution contributes as much as between 20 to 25% of the PM10 and PM2.5 particulate matter found in Delhi's air. It therefore makes eminent sense for a concerted and immediate move to zero emission electric vehicles to help make the air that the people in the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT) breathe actually breathable. That Delhi's vehicular traffic is a conglomeration of buses, cars, two-wheelers and three wheelers (including human powered rickshaws), means that the authorities have their task cut-out for them.
The first thing that strikes one is that cars, though an important components of Delhi's vehicular traffic lag behind two-wheelers in terms of sheer numbers. Of the 10.9 million vehicles on Delhi's roads 7,078,428 were two-wheelers in comparison to 3,246,637 four-wheelers(cars and jeeps) . In addition there were 1,13,074 three wheel auto-rickshaws plying on Delhi's roads. Therefore, any talk of making Delhi vehicles go fully electric has to factor in two wheel and three wheel vehicles comprising as much as 65 % of the traffic in the NCT of Delhi.
So, it follows that a major part of the electrification of vehicular traffic in Delhi would have to focus on electric two wheelers and the already ubiquitous three wheel electric rickshaws. Not surprising in a country where car ownership stands at a modest 20 cars per thousand people. To put this in perspective, the corresponding figure for the United States is 800 cars per thousand people.
One would not be wrong is assuming that this is an idea whose time has come, in light of the growing popularity of e rickshaws as a "last mile connectivity" option.In fact, there are already an impressive 1.5 million e rickshaws on India's streets.
Considering that the largest number of petrol powered vehicles in the Delhi region are two-wheelers, the newly announced EV (Electric Vehicles) policy of the Delhi government is looking at incentivising the adoption of electric two-wheelers by the vast number of people who use these petrol driven vehicles to get around the city. The idea is to wean off as many as 50% of such people from using their conventional two wheel vehicles for electric ones by March 2023. A generous purchase incentive of Rs.30,000 ($403)for changing over to electric two-wheelers is expected to provide the much needed fillip to the drive.
The purchase of electric cars too has been incentivised by way of a Rs.5000 ($67) per k/Wh or Rs.150,000 ($2,020)on the purchase of a four wheeler. Besides, the road tax and registration fee waiver extended to all electric vehicles, too makes choosing electric mobility over conventionally powered vehicles very attractive. All in all the Delhi government is looking at registering an ambitious 500,000 electric vehicles in the coming five years.
How far Delhi is able to successfully implement the ambitious, but well-intentioned EV policy will in many ways decide the fate of the electrification of vehicular traffic in the rest of the way. Delhi had shown the way in the past with the launch and astounding success of the Delhi Metro rail network, under seemingly impossible conditions. This led to a veritable revolution across the Indian urban landscape, what with the Delhi Metro model being replicated across most of the major cities and towns in the country.
If Delhi could go fully electric with regard to its vehicular traffic in the next ten years, it would be a trail blazer amongst the megapolises of the world, with a cascading impact on cleansing the major population centers of the world of a major source of air pollution. This would set in motion a virtuous cycle comprising of a healthy workforce contributing more to the world economy, which in turn further improves their lifestyle. Besides, the industries supporting the new clean energy based transportation system would have created a whole new ecosystem of growth and prosperity minus much of the ill- effects associated with the old fossil fuel based one.
Of course, a lot would depend upon how clean the source of the electric power consumed by the largely electric transportation system would itself be, but that is the subject of another article.
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