Go Electric-7

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THINK  GREEN  TODAY...
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Did you notice that today is September 28th? In a world that is obsessed with many dates and days like 9/11 and others of that ilk, it is easy to forget ... or not to remember.

Today is GREEN CONSUMER DAY.

It is undeniable that we are consumers from childhood to second childhood, from the cradle to the grave, and maybe some more. And psychologists will tell us that conspicuous consumption is addictive and can be a disease even. In India, and particularly in Kerala, mindless consumption has reached alarming levels. Has anybody paused to think of the other side of consumption--production? What do we produce, in comparison to what all we consume??

You sure cannot exist without being a consumer, I agree. So the best bet is to be a 'good' consumer, a 'green' consumer.

So, PLEASE, while indulging your need or your passion for consumption, do think about the choices you make in consumption.
It will make a huge difference, not only to yourself, but to the entire world.

Make greener choices...TODAY :

@ Buy products that use minimal packaging
@ Choose products that minimize waste.
@ Avoid disposable products.
@ Avoid Styrofoam and other non-biodegradable plastics
@ Look for energy efficient appliances with the Energy Star rating.
@ Buy items made from recyclable or renewable materials.
@ Buy products that were made locally that required minimal transportation.
@ Save energy whenever possible!
@ Plant a tree wherever possible !!

Make educated choices by learning from sites like << http://www.greenerchoices.org/ >>

It pays in the long run.

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW....??
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For the 'green-conscious' consumer, the auto sector today offers little choice and dis-incentives by way of very high prices. Isn't it time we made our Government sit up and take note that as consumers we are more attuned to the need of the hour to make greener choices.

Where are the 'green' cars ?
And the 'green' scooters and bikes ??
And the 'green' public transportation ???

Give us this day our green options, oh Lord....
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more to follow
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Go Electric-6

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WORLD HEART DAY Today...
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Today is World Heart Day.

Doctors have determined that regular smoking puts great stress on your heart.
Kicking the habit reduces the risk of coronary disease.
So QUIT SMOKING...NOW!!!

A person who smokes only puts himself in jeopardy.
One who uses a vehicle that smokes puts the entire world in jeopardy.

THINK.
It makes sense to QUIT SMOKING...NOW!!!
Society does not look kindly on smokers of one sort or another.

Too much smoke is not good for health.
Too much oil is not good for health.
Too much stress is not good for health.
Too much hurry is not good for health.
Too much anger is not good for health.

Drive carefully.
Drive without stress.
Drive smart.
Drive with a smile.

And remember,  IF YOU DON'T SMOKE, THEN WHY LET YOUR CAR ???
                          IT'S  TIME  BOTH QUIT SMOKING !
                          HAVE  A  HEART !!


Here is to a smoke-free, stress-free, 'green' tomorrow!
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more to follow
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Go Electric-5

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THE SYNERGY OF IT ALL...
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The dictionary defines 'synergy' as a 'combination that is greater than the sum of its parts'. Truly a car is the epitome of synergy.

How many parts go into the average car engine of today? I haven't counted. Maybe some of us should mail our favourite auto maker and request such statistics for our edification. Thousands probably, if you count all the nuts and bolts and the wires and what not. How many more thousands of precision-engineered parts go into the transmission, the steering and brake assemblies, the lighting and air-conditioning systems, not to speak of the entertainment and other electronic systems. A schoolboy (or, girl, for that matter!) will tell you that the average run-about on our streets today has at least a couple of powerful computers, if not more! Unbelievable...

Synergy is good; in fact, synergy is great! But you get to enjoy the fruits of all that synergy only when the thousands of precision parts engage in a complexly-choreographed, intricate 'dance'. One small sensor misbehaving, one small nut loosening, a minute 'timing' difference, or more recently, a small 'software glitch', can bring you down from the clouds to terra firma in an instant, the unwilling victim of the classic 'breakdown'. And today getting out of the situation would need specialist knowledge and tools and equipment on the part of the auto trouble-shooter. The car IS a complex system with many complex sub-systems, period.

The march of technology has overtaken the 'old tech', and today, increasingly, most things are taken care of by the omni-present microcontroller. One good thing though--almost any failure could be attributed to a 'software glitch' by the PR guys! No, you dont talk of software malfunctioning; it is ONLY a glitch. Glitch or failure, it all means the same thing to the user/driver. You are right royally stuck on the road, in the middle of nowhere. The most (in)famous software glitch in recent times was the one that 'bugged' the Toyota Prius model in the US. Toyota had to recall more than 150,000 cars to fix a software bug that made the cars accelerate on its own/not respond to the gas pedal. Easily an instance of software 'crashes' being more lethal than the usual ones on our highways that occur mostly as a result of driver error. Thank the stars (and automakers!) that like the modern child who blamed his calculator batteries for the low grades he got in math, the average driver could always attempt to extricate himself with the non-committal, “Ah, it was my engine micro...what could I do!”.

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COMPLEX  versus  SIMPLE  TECH
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It would be interesting at this stage to take a look at a typical electric car and make a direct comparison with its 'gas' cousin.

[ Note:  'Gas' is used as a 'stand-in' for either petrol or diesel. ]

# The 'gas' car power-train : Engine--> clutch--> gearbox--> wheels

# The electric power-train : motor--> wheels


That would "translate", in the case of the 'gas' car, as:

@ xxxx engine parts + xxx clutch parts + xxxx gearbox parts,
before power is delivered to the wheels.


While in the case of the electric, it would mean:

@ just 1 motor
delivering power directly to the wheels!

And what about driving?

Driving the typical 'gas' car would need a fine co-ordination of the clutch, the gearshift and the accelerator, not to ignore the brake pedal! Again, the driver has to make instantaneous decisions about shifting gears and implement that correctly if the car has to be driven with some amount of efficiency and smoothness, and minimum pollution. This, as we all know, calls for a longer period of training and practice, and in spite of all that, we end up with having a lot of 'below par' drivers on our roads.

Driving the typical electric couldn't be simpler. As they say, it is as easy as "falling off a log". Push the accelerator pedal and the car moves forward in direct proportion to the position of the pedal. Take your foot off the pedal, and regenerative braking (that is, recharging the batteries by using the drive motor as a generator) slows down the vehicle drastically. Only if you need to 'stop in hurry', you have to hit the brake pedal. Reverse? Just throw a switch and press the controller pedal. Sounds simple and easy? The description of it all takes more time than actually doing it!

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REALITY SUCKS !
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We all have come to believe that the "proof of the pudding is in the eating". Sure, any car would be only as good as it can be on the road in real-life conditions, irrespective of how it would have been 'hyped' in advertisements.

In the Indian context almost every customer has his or her favourite story of the wide gulf between 'reality on the ground' and 'wishful thinking' in the clouds. The car (or, for that matter the bike or scooter) with 'smooth-as-silk acceleration' and 'power-to-spare' and a 'certified mileage' of xx km/litre of fuel, turns out to be just average on the road. (No miracle engine has been invented yet that could perform like a 3-litre V-8 engine with just 800 cc capacity!)  And when the occasion comes for you to drive into the fuel pump (all too soon!), you realize that the stated mileage is for an 'ideal' world! This repetitive shock is enough to curtail for ever your initial enthusiasm to 'floor the pedal' and enjoy the 'silky-smooth' drive/ride.

And in India we all take for granted another 'factor' in the mileage equation: xx km/litre needs a re-statement --if you are a schoolboy doing sums! The 'litre' is more often anywhere between 850 mL and 950 mL. It would also take a 'super-skilled' analyst to figure out the mileage loss/engine damage/pollution brought on by the 'additive' of kerosene! It is a laugh--if you are NOT the one paying the money!

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THE "IDLE" REALITY
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While looking at fuel consumption and pollution critically, one has to be careful not to miss certain obvious factors.

A typical 'gas' engine achieves its performance and efficiency and its pollution factors at an 'optimum' speed. This ideal is never realized in practice. Though the role of the gearbox is to match the engine running at its 'optimum' to meet the requirements of load and speed, this is never achieved, except theoretically when the gearbox has infinite ratios. The engine is at its polluting, uneconomical WORST when it is starting up and accelerating and while it is negotiating climbs. Even on smooth and level highways, we keep hearing the advise to 'be light on the pedal' if you are to reap any economy. Anybody who has stood near a gradient in the road or near a traffic light knows that the engines, irrespective of whether they are from a 'classy stable' or are the products of more mundane parentage, are uniformly 'heavy' in their exhausts.

Another often ignored reality is the 'idling', the interminable wait at the lights, or in our country, in 'jams' and roadblocks, with the engine running. In typical urban traffic, the "stop-start-crawl-stop-wait" drill takes a toll on all the mechanical systems, not to speak of the nerves of the drivers and others. Any small to medium Indian city or town is a living example of the ill effects of the 'clouds' of pollution emitted by hundreds of vehicles going through this drill the whole day and for quite some time in the night too.

Engineers have estimated that three to four times fuel than normally needed is burned up in negotiating a short urban distance than on the open highways. This eats into the economy, while simultaneously upping pollution to unbearable levels.

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THE  ELECTRIC  REALITY
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Let us push the electric car into the above 'hellfire and brimstone' scenario and see what happens.
The "stop-start-crawl-stop-wait" drill appears to be 'tailor-made' for the electric. No frantic 'interplay' of pedals and the handbrake, and no sweat too. Push to go, take off the foot to stop. And the 'idle'? ZERO energy idling for as long as you please, and no 'starting up' before you can go; just another push of the pedal, and off you go.

Engineers will tell you electric motors have a 'characteristic'. At starting, their 'torque' is the highest. As speed mounts, torque comes down. An ideal characteristic for starting and driving a vehicle. This is what makes the electrics do without any complex 'gearing' or gear-shifting. Come to think of it, the giant locomotives that pull nearly a hundred or more loaded wagons are driven by electric motors working on the same principle, no less. What is good for the 'brawny' rail giants cannot be bad for their  'flea-power' road-going cousins.

And what about a couple of hundred electrics 'idling' to their hearts' content? Silent as the grave--because nothing is running! In the days of the super-silent Rolls-Royce, the clock ticked and made a noise; but these days the digital clocks would keep running silently! The only 'pollution' will be caused by the carbon dioxide exhalations of the occupants of the cars! Really ?!!

Just that one factor of a ZERO ENERGY, ZERO EMISSION idling is what should recommend the electric as THE vehicle of choice for the busy urban landscapes.

Are our Town planners and the Civic Fathers listening? They better listen...because today 'the man in the street' knows better.
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(more to follow)

Go Electric-4

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CAR-bon  FREE  DAY  today...

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It is another RED LETTER DAY today. But the red is the 'other kind of red' at which we freeze in alarm and stop in our tracks -- literally! One hundred years of 'progress' with the hydrocarbon engines... and what have we got? Virtually all from six to sixty are in agreement that the Planet is wheezing and sneezing and feeling 'hot' and threatened with the accumulated carbon-related emissions.  Hence we have today the CAR-FREE DAY, the CARBON-FREE DAY....

Everybody is in agreement--except that is the car majors and the oil barons, who are probably busy funding another 'expert study' to tell you that a car free day can do pretty little to alter the carbon footprint! We know for a fact that they have not shut down their assembly lines or the refineries, or for that matter any of their umpteen oil wells for a day. But we are curious to know what exactly are they doing for us, for the Planet, today at least. Are we on a futile campaign? Quite often you feel that you are bashing your head against a stone wall, but then we all know that it is something that can move even stone walls.

One hundred years of 'engineering refinement' has given us shorter and shorter times in which to reach the magical 0 to 60 mph acceleration. Or, is that exhilaration? Truly. But at what cost? The hydrocarbon-powered, carbon oxide-spewing autos have taken over--at first our cities, then our countrysides and now our Planet, altering our lifestyles and affecting our lives in many unseen and unhealthy ways. The damage is done and it is irreversible.

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THE CAR HAS ARRIVED!

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The car aficionados can rightly be proud of the achievement of the last one hundred years of 'development'. From the chugging curiosities on the dirt tracks of the last century, the car has been transformed into the quintessence of engineering perfection and luxury that man can devise. The induction of computers as engine management controllers and their increasing role as 'overall' controllers for air-conditioning to entertainment to road safety and navigation has indeed converted the typical car into a 'smart' entity. Breakdowns and malfunctions are only a distant memory for most of the car users. All these and more are undeniable facts and we can say with pride, yes the 'smart car has arrived'. This IS the 'smart' era when everything from phones to lavatories are endowed with the 'smarts' --except perhaps their users!

Look at today's car. You can say the engine has 'not changed much' from its ancestors. But is that the truth? The engineering that has gone into today's engines has made them veritable marvels. The same goes for transmissions, brakes, lights and such like. What about creature comforts like air-conditioning, entertainment systems and satellite navigation? Some of the car entertainment systems easily surpass the average home hi-fi systems! And sat-nav has empowered the driver like never before, whether he is on home turf or on unexplored territory. Vehicle safety has taken the front seat with anti-collision systems and anti-locking brakes and air-bags and other safety devices like 'reversing helpers'. Baby, today's car has come really far, we have to admit.

But pause to take a look at the basic tech that powers the car. No major changes, none. We had the 'anti-knock-additives' scare in the last century. It was lead and it led to many health hazards. So today we have lead-free fuels. Then we had the pollution problems caused by carbon dioxide and the more poisonous carbon monoxide and the oxides of nitrogen. Millions of tons of all those life-threatening pollutants spewed out into the atmosphere was causing everything from respiratory diseases to acid rain to global warming and aberrations in the Planet's weather. So they tacked on catalytic converters and other such gizmos, and slowly brought in legislation to 'improve' the quality of the fuel. So far so good.

But was there any light really at the end of the tunnel? Were alternative technologies being investigated by institutions or governments? Not that we heard of except the ‘half-hearted’ attempts that were cobbled together for the sake of "public relations". Every car company has an electric ‘in the works’; but sadly, the technology is not mature enough for implementation now, according to the pundits. The systematic 'burial of the unborn' was the one policy in sight all along despite the laudable efforts of many.

And the writing on the wall now?

We ARE committed to one thing, and that is the hydrocarbon fuels; nothing else is good enough.

THEY have decided for US.

Do we want to accept that lock, stock and barrel... hook, line and sinker?

Baby, we have another thing coming!! 

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(more to follow)

Go electric-3

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IT'S ALL VERY CRUDE...
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If you think that crude is the only 'crude' part of the crude business, well you could be just plain naive. It is a multi-trillion dollar business, with megacorporates jostling for space at the top. The high-voltage game has, as we all know, great Indian players too. And when the stakes are big, can they be blamed if they want to 'protect their turf' ??

All that the layman needs to do is take one look at the largest corporates in the world and count how many are in the 'crude' business. Enough and more to tell you where the 'big money' is. Digging for crude is not child's play, though the word 'oil well' might make us think that it is somewhat similar to digging one that we are all familiar with in our backyards. The investment is mind-boggling, the sheer size and capabilities of the machinery awesome, and the stakes skyhigh. It sure is a game played in a mammoth scale. The locales? Desert wastelands, faraway oceans and other inaccessible places. With that sort of billion dollar investments 'sunk into the earth', nobody is going to sit idle when their bottom lines are threatened by some 'crazy' ideas like electric cars. If half the owners were to switch to batteries and solar and wind, then who will 'drink up' all the crude that is being dug up? This world is too full of examples where powerful corporates have lobbied and scuttled many good schemes. The latest in this series of (dis-)'information' is the (no doubt sponsored!) 'study' by 'experts' that establishes beyond doubt that the adoption of electric cars is NOT going to affect the 'carbon footprint', and so strongly advocates the maintenance of 'status quo'. As the wise saying goes, "...there are lies, damn lies and then statistics...". We will postpone analyzing the 'expert findings' to a later date--it would take the best part of another long post. Instead let us get on with our thread of thoughts for now.

So all that investment presupposes that the profits should keep flowing in till kingdom come. And the crude guys are not going to let anybody 'rock the boat' until the last drop of crude is pumped out of the earth, and the last dollar tinkles into their till. Who dug up the Arabian desert wastes for oil? Not the Arabs or the Africans or Indians. It was chiefly the Americans and the Europeans who were looking for ways to fuel their mindless quest for four-wheeled 'luxury'. The wells gushed 'the other stuff' too that could oil the wheels of pretty much anything--money. And, of course, like in the days of the East India Company, it was good 'business' to dig for crude. If we think the corporates are greedy for 'crude' profits, look at the saintly governments who make a lot of money from the pricing of crude and related products. Does anybody remember the 'Gulf war surcharge' put on petro products by the Government of India back when the Gulf war started? The war is over (or maybe it is not for them in the oil ministry!), but the surcharge has been 'absorbed' permanently into the price! Looking at that and many like ploys would take another entire post, or even two! It would be great if somebody does an analysis of the 'value addition' that occurs as crude is transformed into the fuel that is dispensed to us by companies and governments, and also look at where all that money is going.

Western science was advanced enough at the time to know that burning of such vast quantities of fossil fuels will degrade the atmosphere and cause all sorts of upheavals in the ecosystem. But everybody turned a blind eye to it all until urban smog and pollution began to really hurt.  But nothing much happened and quietly they went on digging their wells in far off oceans. God alone knows what damage is being done there as there is nobody to 'police' what is going on there. Only when recently the BP offshore oil-well catastrophe threatened their own shores has the American government 'woken up' to the dangers of offshore drilling and the ever-present threat to the ecosystem. Who has contributed the vast quantities of 'greenhouse gases' in our atmosphere and augured in climate change? All that we know is it was not us. And we don’t want to in the future. Any guilty parties there? Does anybody want to put their signatures to the Kyoto protocol? Thanks to many studies, the average person in the street is now more aware of the situation and of his/her own increasing environmental responsibilities.

After polluting their own countries to an extreme level, why are all the auto majors now making a beeline for India and other developing countries? Not because of an altruistic love for us, not because they want to give us the fruits of their research and make a difference to our lives. Yes, ultimately it IS going to make a difference to our lives, but not in a way that we would welcome or want. It is money, and they care two hoots about how our air and water will be poisoned by the products they sell to us through 'want-making' ads. Their environmental concern is limited to a couple of slogans in their ads and maybe a few bumper stickers! I say this because if they were truly concerned about the environment and the quality of life of their customers and of the state of the Planet, and if they had really learnt a bitter lesson from their mistakes of the past, they ought to have cried halt to the present campaign and chosen to pump in money for research into viable alternatives--NOW.

What is the reality? After decades of civic pressure, governments enact some stringent norms for emissions etc. The corporates 'shilly and shally' for as many years as they can and then come up with the minimum technological changes necessary, and the game goes on as usual. In the meantime they are manipulating all of us and the law makers--and denying doing that too. It is just like our 'abkari' (liquor) situation. Everybody agrees liquor is bad for health and happiness at home. So what does the government do? They put a warning sticker on the bottle as a 'timely' reminder for the drunks (small print which even a non-drunk can't read!) and auction away the rights to sell any poison to the public. The result? A little money goes into the government coffers and a lot of money goes into various pockets. Keeps everybody happy.... Well, oil could be as 'intoxicating', if not more, as alcohol is and its various inventive combos.

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WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?
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What happened to the electric car that was the pace-setter and the leading technology --not to speak of the sheer numbers and their public acceptance--back in the 1900s? And what happened to the electric car redux that took place in the mid-20th C in America as a result of increasing civic pressure and legislation?

It is an education to watch the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car" by Chris Paine. You will be shocked by the revelations of how the US car majors and the oil barons conspired to kill and bury (forever?) the promising alternative, the electric car. You will be dismayed to watch how an oil company bought the rights to a revolutionary battery and slowly snuffed it out. You will watch how General Motors released its first electric cars with defective batteries, probably calculated to exasperate the users so they would never again think electric. Many of the 'behind the scenes' things are downright unbelievable. So, before anything, take time out to watch the documentary online at:

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/who-killed-the-electric-car/
or at
http://freedocumentaries.org/int.php?filmID=336

It will change the way you think. And that means you will be acting different tomorrow--which is critical when you consider the fine balance of our lives on this Planet Earth.
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Here is also a worthwhile quote (emphases mine):
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"--- Peter Oppewall (http://EVtransPortal.org)
21 Jun, 2010 09:32 PM

There are technological solutions available now to overcome the range problem with batteries including hybrids, battery swapping, and inductive charging of the roadway at various points --->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnePffoZs_k
The real problem here is not a lack of technological solutions but a lack of political and social will needed to make the changes necessary to transition more rapidly away from fossil fuels, fuels which we already know are not sustainable.
As long as we continue to allow corporations to privatize the profits of oil, and pass on to consumers the true costs of oil in the form of catastrophic oil spills, carbon emissions, health costs from pollution, climate changes, and military interventions motivated by competition for oil to name a few, we will not see consumers willing or able to switch to cleaner transportation technology. ---"
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Like I said earlier, cars are meant to transport us from A to B. Why should the car makers be mulish and think that it is only the oil-engined ones that will sell? If they can make a good electric (or even atomic powered car!) and can offer a choice to the buying public, they will still be in a profitable business for decades to come. If they are sincere about the ecology, they should go further than shedding a few crocodile tears and, for a change, put their money where it will do the most good overall, and not where it will bring in the maximum profit.

Let us tell the big auto giants one thing. Nobody is going to believe them if they go on saying they can't come up with a good alternative, or that the technology is not yet 'ripe' etc. Let us tell them we will NOT buy their products-- unless they make it our way. And our way is an eco-friendly one. I dare say you dont have to be a 'rocket scientist'  to 'spec out' a good, practical electric car that could be built now with currently existing and proven technology. Let us do that NOW!

Yes, in our coming posts we will give the auto boys a sure-fire formula for putting together a practical electric car. A formula followed by hundreds of ordinary folk with success and satisfaction. Let the auto majors remember that to fail where these ordinary folk have succeeded will be their funeral. And nobody will be bringing any flowers either!
Maruti, Hyundai ( I am not forgetting their concept electric), Ford, Chevrolet, VW, Nissan, Toyota, Honda....the whole lot... Are you listening??
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(more to follow)

Go electric-2

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SO, WHO NEEDS ECONOMY?
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Now back to the story about the group of young techies writing to the then President of India APJ Abdul Kalam about the economy angle of automobiles. They wondered why the Government was not offering the typical ‘carrot and the stick’ persuasion to India’s leading auto majors to come up with fuel-efficient designs that wouldn’t tax the economy and the common man too much. The story goes that the great man himself wrote to most of the giants of Indian auto industry, but the reply that he got was not very encouraging. They were not interested in an economy car; it just wouldn’t sell. They played the marketing ad game with ‘performance’ figures. It is time we asked ourselves what difference it made to the average user if one car could reach 0-60 in 3 seconds flat and another took maybe 3.8 seconds. APJ, the clear-minded techie with a vision, was flummoxed by the illogical attitude of the auto companies, and the story goes on to say how he confided his dissatisfaction with their attitude to many.

For all that we know this could be an apocryphal story invented by a fertile mind or two. But it is equally possible that it is true. Otherwise how could we accept the ‘inability’ of the auto engineers to come up with an economical engine? They have over the years put in so many innovations including a powerful computer into the car that manages the engine so well that it could send the machine into orbit if you floor the pedal with some energy and enthusiasm. But they don’t know yet how to transport a few people weighing hardly 200 kg a few kilometres without burning up a couple of litres of precious, polluting fossil fuels. ??? Shame...

As lay persons, all we need to do is to take a look from the 'outside'. But a careful and long look at engines. A couple of decades back the engines that powered lawnmowers and the outboard engines of boats were small in form factor. But they were heavy and complex, and noisy, though ‘muffled’ into comparative silence. A bit later you could get a chain saw with a petrol engine; but you had to be well-muscled to handle that.

Today look at what’s on offer. The average lawn mower engine is light and silent and needs just a sip of fuel. The chain saw and other petrol-engined power tools are light and silent. In India if you want to assess the situation, the best bet is to look at the electricity generators. Ten-fifteen years back the average kilowatt gen-set was a heavy, noisy behemoth that needed the attentions of a couple of musclemen to get it going. Not any longer. Today the same machine is smaller than a milk crate and has been ‘civilized’ into quiet behaviour. And the daintiest of ladies could 'handle' it, literally!

How this transformation has happened? Simple. If they couldn’t compete with the lighter electric equivalents, people wouldn’t buy them. So the manufacturers have gone and made them as light and as silent as the best of the electrics—almost—and, in addition, offered the ‘portability’ and 'freedom' that typical tethered or battery-powered electrics didn’t have. Ah, so the engineers know how to design and build good, small, economic engines with performance second to none?? Really! But then why this evolution hasn’t happened in the auto industry? Partly it is us the consumers who are at fault, but chiefly the blame can be laid squarely at the door of the automakers, in my humble opinion.
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MILEAGE, ANYBODY....??
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Indian ethos and requirements are a unique blend. We are a frugal people and generally very civilized too, I have observed. The average Indian buys a vehicle because of a dire need. Anybody who was cursed with depending on public transportation knows the true meaning of the 'yearning' to own a vehicle of one's own. Usually it is a humble two-wheeler. And what is the first criterion of choice? Mileage, my dear sir! No one knows that better than Hero Honda who sold their CD-100 in their millions, and then, capitalizing on the success of the engine, slapped the same engine onto a score of other models and went on selling a few more millions, and is still raking in the money from selling those 'old tech' bikes. So what does it tell us? The average user is interested in getting from A to B with the least hassle and the least expense, and if he could do that in a 'green manner', well, all the better!

The mindset is not much different in the car sector too. And anybody who has 'navigated' the tortuous city streets on a two-wheeler with the 'missus' sitting side-saddle behind, adroitly balancing the baby and the bags, with the elder kid sitting on the fuel tank blocking the rider's view, all the while praying for 'balance' in the midst of the mayhem that is called 'traffic' and when suddenly you are drenched in a shower, wife and kids and the bags and all... well, he knows the true meaning of the 'yearning' for a covered, four-wheeled vehicle. ( It beats me why the popular three-wheeled wonder has not stepped in as the family car. Maybe it has got something to do with 'attitude'.)

And here again, the owner is not bothered about 'performance' counted in fractions of seconds etc. Rather the poor soul wishes to get from A to B in comparative comfort and the least possible expense. 'Style' is a 'me too' factor. I have polled hundreds of drivers and you won’t believe this. The 'well-heeled dude' who has plunked down about three to four times more money than the average 'aam aadmi' for his 'all-singing, all-whistling wonder on wheels' admits with a wry face that the "mileage is very poor, but hey, that doesn't matter, gimme performance any day"!! But I see him/her often parking the car safely somewhere and jumping into an 'auto' (in India, a ubiquitous three-wheeled taxi) because that happens to be cheaper!

So there IS a market for fuel-efficient vehicles, and the companies are not going to lose their marbles if they offer one... or two, or three models. Has anybody bothered to calculate how much of our GDP is being siphoned off and 'vapourized' by the auto industry? A pretty pile, I guess. And the damage to the environment? Who is going to pay for that, ultimately?

Americans ushered in the 'urban dream' centred around the automobile, but now it has turned into a regular nightmare-- as we are slowly but surely discovering, as we wait indefinitely in the gridlocked, bumper-to-bumper 'traffic' of our cities and towns that doesn’t even crawl, breathing the sweet aroma of 'progress'. Why are we locked into this inescapable Kafkaesque nightmare? Chiefly because the automakers do not want to offer us viable alternatives. They have their reasons, whatever they might be. But our experience tells us that like most of the things that we see in this world, if you look closely it will ultimately lead us to their purse strings. Money is perhaps the most powerful reason in this world. And the way some people act here, it looks as if it is sure to be so in the next world too!!

Before we can convince others, we have to be convinced ourselves. So let us examine the situation, the technology and the possibilities in a clear-headed way with an unbiased eye-- and in a practical manner.
So that is what I intend to do next.
Write in and tell me how we are going. And be free with your comments and your own experience, your ideas and opinions.
No matter if you don't tell me when I am right; but when I am wrong, DO tell me. Thanks in advance!
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(more to follow)

Go electric-1

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CARS: PAST, PRESENT... FUTURE ?
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The history of cars...ahem! automobiles... makes for interesting reading. No two questions that fast 'autos' were dreamed of by men in prehistory too. The Greeks and the Romans, among the ancients were worshippers of speed, though their two or four-wheeled contraptions never smelt of petrol or diesel fumes. Rather their 'emissions' were good manure for the avenue trees!

Though we are not here too much bothered about 'firsts', still it is a lark to find that the Frenchman Nicolas Cugnot is often credited with the building of the first road-going vehicle, and the first guy with the distinction of getting into a road accident! (We have no information whether he was charged by the police or not...) (http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarssteama.htm )

Road vehicles began with the steam behemoths of the late 18th C. From then on it was a procession of inventions and refinements through the next century that filled the crude roads of the time with a variety of 'automobiles' that clanged and hissed through the unpaved streets, frightening men and animals and giving some sort of 'bragging rights' to their owners. Rather than being utilitarian, these were mostly curiosities and proofs of concepts.

Most of us think that cars, as we know them today, are as old as that. Well, basically yes, and yet no! The gasolene-powered auto had to wait till the end of the 19th C to make its presence known, and then too it was a poor second to the 'established' electric car. Electric cars? Aren't they a new-fangled invention loved by the 'green brigade'? No, Sir. Electrics are older than their smelly cousins. Mid 19th C saw them 'overtaking' the ponderous steam contraptions in Europe and England. But their acceptance in the US had to wait till the last decades of the 19th C. But very soon America had a large population of electric cars. It is interesting to find that electrics outsold everything else in the landmark year 1900, and New York city by then had a fleet of stylish electric taxis. They even had an electric/gas hybrid too in those days --probably for the same reasons for which we build them today. Unbelievable? Well, that is just history for you.

History also tells us that in many years the land speed champs were the electrics. The average electric car had a range of about 30-35 km on a single charge, a top speed of about 25 km per hour and cost about $ 2,000. When you look at the 100 years plus that has passed since then, you could say pretty little has changed!

What made the electrics attractive?
"..... Electric vehicles had many advantages over their competitors in the early 1900s. They did not have the vibration, smell, and noise associated with gasoline cars. Changing gears on gasoline cars was the most difficult part of driving, while electric vehicles did not require gear changes. While steam-powered cars also had no gear shifting, they suffered from long start-up times of up to 45 minutes on cold mornings. The steam cars had less range before needing water than an electric's range on a single charge. The only good roads of the period were in town, causing most travel to be local commuting, a perfect situation for electric vehicles, since their range was limited. The electric vehicle was the preferred choice of many because it did not require the manual effort to start, as with the hand crank on gasoline vehicles, and there was no wrestling with a gear shifter...." (http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarselectrica.htm ) Ah, more or less the same reasons that should make them popular in our times too in our gridlocked, smelly cities.
But then what happened to this 'top-line' technology that was left to languish, while the 'second-rate' gas engine received all the 'research funding' and overtook the electric? If one chooses to read in between the lines, it was basically just one thing. In the large car market that America was fast becoming with wide-open country, its network of roads and its citizens' love of 'wanderlust', cheap Texas crude was the one factor in the equation that tilted the balance. Electrics did not drink oil. So if you wanted to sell oil, you had to have 'oil drinkers' or gas guzzlers. Those who are old in the tooth would remember the early tobacco industry ploys. Free smokes offered at the wayside 'converted' many into devotees of the stuff, thus making the tobacco corporates into powerful  oligarchies.

And aren't oil megacorps the great oligarchies of the present day? The nexus between the oil barons and the auto magnates have remained till the present--something like the 'Wintel' juggernaut of the computing world.

Surely the future of autos would have been different had Henry Ford, the grand-daddy of the assembly-line and mass production, gone the electric way. Sadly he hasn’t apparently confided in anybody why he chose to produce the petrol version of the ‘Tin Lizzie’ that went on to transform America. We can’t possibly know unless we could get hold of a capable ‘spirit’ medium and ask the great man himself. So we are left with guessing. My guess is that he wanted to “cut free of the electrical umbilical” that was city-centred, and go for the wide open country. Quite possible, and the rest, as they have a way of saying, is history.

There is an apocryphal story going the rounds in India about why nobody has till now 'invented' a really economic engine, one that just 'sipped petrol' -- after all these years of 'cutting-edge' research and what not, that auto companies brag of always in their ads released 'in public interest' !

A group of conscientious young engineers wrote to Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, (  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._P._J._Abdul_Kalam ) the former President of India and an honest gentleman whom India and Indians should be proud of. ( Last month when I visited a young friend of mine at his office, I was touched when I saw a small portrait of APJ lovingly kept on his desk. And I asked myself why I had not done that till then? Every young Indian, every student and every engineer should ask that question to himself or herself, I feel. It is good for each of us to have a 'role model', and APJ is one that anyone can be proud of. His simplicity is indeed the key to his greatness. In my humble opinion, India was the ideal Platonic Republic when 'ruled' by our beloved First Citizen APJ, the modern equivalent of the "Philosopher King" ! 101 salutes to him !!! )
(more to follow)

Go Electric... NOW !!!

This blog is about the much needed shift to electric vehicles, particularly personal transportation like cars and bikes and scooters. That is, if we want to preserve the greenery of this planet, and our happiness.
We get what we ask for. So instead of silently going along with what is dished out, let us make a demand for a rethink. Let us vote with our wallets, and surely the automakers and others will listen-- they have to if they are serious about their business!

Why are the big automakers apathetic/half-hearted about this critical shift in technology?
What about current technology and its suitability?
What about practicality?

What CAN we do NOW?

Let us share our points of view on the above from an educated lay person's perspective.
Let us try and 'fuel' a change in the right direction.

I shall try and sum up the current state of affairs and then move on to other aspects.
I do not claim to know everything; so your knowledgeable comments, suggestions and ideas are always welcome.

Do join me in an 'electric drive' to a greener tomorrow !!

Sincerely,

-The Prof