"You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the mind, or the wind, but you can change yourself.” -Jim Rohn
This article becomes very important in today’s time when a lot of money is flowing into EV start-Ups, as well as all battery manufacturing companies are getting into the EV manufacturing sector, is that worth it for the next 10 years? Also understanding how much good are we doing to the environment by shifting from petrol, diesel, and CNG to EV? Is it any worth it?
One of the most growing and booming industries in today’s time is the Electic Vehicle (EV) sector. Be it Commercial vehicles, personal vehicles (2 wheeler & 4 wheeler), or be it Auto-Rickshaw segments either they are being converted into EV or their new EV models are launched. Also, most new startups are entering this sector. Let’s understand its worth.
Firstly, the above data as of 31st January 2022, explains the reality, that more than 50% of the power generation in India is from the Thermal Power plants (the most relied source for power generation in India), the major industry pointed for the air pollution. So by shifting from petrol or diesel to EV, we are actually increasing the burden on the thermal power plants, demand for coal, and reason for the cause of pollution. We are doing no good to the environment by shifting to it. And it will take at least 10-15 years for the country to get into renewable sources of energy as its main source of power generation. Also when the current central government is focusing on solar power, again, it has its own demerit which will be talked about it further in the article.
Now let's talk about the USA, from where this whole concept of EV and one of the first few EV manufacturing Tesla was founded.
Can you understand the difference from the above data, the coal dependency of the country is just around One-Thirds as compared to India. 60 % is managed by Gas and renewable source of energy. So when the burden increases for the power generation it will not at all harm the environment or the supply as is the US is the second-largest supplier of petroleum as it is environmental pollution from natural gas is very limited.
Secondly nor USA nor India has any plan for disposing of the lithium batteries and lithium batteries are also non-recycled batteries that could not be mended, refiled with distilled water, and sent back for use. This is not at all possible with lithium batteries and it is one of the worst E-waste. The same goes for the Solar panel after use you do not have any solution for disposing of it. When it gets dumped it starts releasing harmful radiation into the environment, which is harmful to all.
Let's talk about Costing of the product.
Tata Nexon EV holds around 70% of the 4 wheeler market share.
Base Price of Tata Nexon EV Base model (XM variant)- Rs.14.54 lakh + the running cost would be some.
Base Price of Tata Nexon Base model petrol (XE variant)- Rs. 7.42 Lakh (we can even add 50k for the warranty extension for the 5 years, which reduces the external cost to zero.)
Difference= Rs. 7.12 Lakh (6.62 after extended warrenty)
Now even if the petrol price is Rs. 130/L- and Nexon's (petrol) average mileage is around16Km/L.
Fuel Purcchased= 5,477 Liters= 5477*16= 87630 Km you can travel. That's more than the average distance covered by an Indian in 10 years.
Yes, the EV's maintenance cost is zero and it is pocket friendly in long run. But if some mishappen takes place and the battery needs to be replaced then you need to speed half the cost of the vehicle, for current scenario would be around 7 lakh approx.
Thirdly, and most importantly is the cost of raw material, here it is the Lithium Battery. India does not have enough Lithium reserves and it has to import from non-other than China. Seeing the constant Geo-Political tussle between India and China it is 100% sure that in near future the price is going to rise. We also know China is not at all depends only on the Indian market, it has found new markets like Russia, Eastern Europe, South Asia, and Central Asia.
Now, let's compare the Scenario with the USA. The USA is very close to Lithium Tringale, which includes Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia which holds around 58% of the world's available resources. In this case, the terms are dictated by the USA and not these countries as they also know that the USA is the only market for them.
This is how I rest my case. But it is good from the Government, Entrepreneurs, as well as from Researchers, we have started thinking about renewable sources of energy and alternatives to combustion/ non-renewable sources of energy. But still, a lot of R&D is yet to done. After approving any project like EV or Solar power generation, their process of disposing of is yet to be done, if Lithium batteries and Solar Panels are not disposed of properly they could be more harmful to mankind than plastic and other pollutions.
Thank You '
Akshansh Vidyarthy
Jai Hind.
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