Go Electric-10

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WHAT'S ON FOR INDIA ?

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The other day --to be precise on 4 October, 2010 -- readers of Kerala's 'Mathrubhumi' daily ( the Trivandrum print edition) were treated to an exclusive interview on page 9.  The writer, Mr K K Subair, had buttonholed none less than Shashank Srivasthava, Chief General Manager, Maruti-Suzuki, the Indian car giant.

(Available on-line at:

http://epaper.mathrubhumi.com/index.php?id=16265&cat=14&date=2010-10-04 )

The two-line headline is a direct quote from one of the top men in India who decides what India will drive tomorrow. A rough translation would read: " India loves fuel economy", "The electric car is a distant dream".  Very succinct, as can be expected from a person of Mr Srivasthava's calibre.

Maruti, as we all know, is the biggest car maker in India with a popular range of cars that meet everyone's needs. Those of us who are slightly long in the tooth would remember the dream small car that carried the name of 'Maruti' and that was the twinkle in the younger entrepreneur son of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Years of 'research and development' later no car was seen in the roads of India, and suddenly one fine morning Suzuki, the Japanese car giant was invited for a tie-up, and finally in 1983 a canny little runabout was announced. I checked the Maruti-Suzuki site and this was the only thing

( http://www.marutisuzuki.com/milestones.aspx ) that was there to refresh my memory.

Another page gives you an insight into the core values (http://www.marutisuzuki.com/vision-and-core-values.aspx ) that drive them.

Their environmental concerns are reflected by their commitment to develop environment-friendly engines, their K-sries being the latest and the best in that regard. No wonder quite a lot of us love and prefer a Maruti.

Good for them. Good for us. Or, is it?

Now let us get back to Mr Srivasthava and the interview. After talking about his company's plans to invest about Rs 1,700 crores additionally to ramp up production,  he touches on that favourite India topic--fuel economy. As an 'insider' who knows the 'pulse' of India, he knows only too well that the average Indian car buyer rates mileage/fuel economy above other things, including even looks and that evasive quality, performance, and he says as much to the interviewer too.

The next question put to him  : 'What is the progress on the electric car project?'

Ans: ' It is only a distant target. It will take a long time for that to happen in India. The experience the world over re. the electric car is not very attractive. Even in America electic cars make up only about 4% of all the cars."

So that is how he sees it. So let us write to him to plead our case!

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AN OPEN LETTER to Shashank Srivasthava, CGM, Maruti-Suzuki, India

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Sir,

We have come to know from the recent interview that you gave to the Mathrubhumi daily of Kerala that Maruti is NOT comtemplating releasing an electric car in the recent future. You have said it is only a DISTANT dream/target.


How distant, Sir? Five years, ten years,  or longer???

You remember how back in 1983 you came out with the small hatchback called the Maruti-800? How long did it take for it to change the Indian auto scene beyond recognition? Not much as we all know. As they say, the rest was history.  Why did it happen? India was one of those countries which enjoyed a ready market for the traditionally 'classy' cars since day one of their introduction. Dont you remember that story about Bhagwan Rajneesh who 'owned' the largest number of Rolls-Royces in the world?

The little Maruti became popular because the only two cars available then in India --the venerable Ambassador and the Fiat; no, the Standard is not forgotten-- were 'behind the times' and the companies that produced these cars were smug and complacent and took the poor Indian customer 'for granted'. Maruti did not simply enter the Indian market; it exploded into a staid market and created waves.


Here was finally a 'dream car' to meet the needs of the average Indian--looks, technology, reliability and fuel efficiency too! So far as I know and remember, it was the first and only car in India (no, I am NOT counting the R-Rs, Benzes, Bugattis or the BMWs) that offered 'driver comforts' such as steering-mounted switches, a good air-conditioner, adjustable seats, good electrical systems, and a nice car stereo too! It was a 'complete' car, and VERY attractive at its original first-release price of, if I remember right, less than half a lakh.

Maruti has remained a top-rung company by listening to the needs of its range of customers. Now for some reasons it is showing signs that it is departing from that model. Sir, will you tell us more about the Maruti-Suzuki electric car project? Share with us the findings of your brilliant research teams. What are the factors that have put 'spanners in the works' so far as the electric car research is concerned? Please do not tell us that the scientists and engineers of top-notch companies like yours are unable to repeat what is being done by do-it-yourselfers the world over, namely, converting and using electric cars? Yes, we know, a one-off attempt is one thing, and manufacturing a successful range of vehicles is another. But surely it cannot be beyond the capabilities of large corporates like yours.

Look at Tesla in the US ( http://www.teslamotors.com/ )

 Renault ( http://www.renault.com/en/capeco2/vehicule-electrique/pages/vehicule-electrique.aspx  )

and now Benz ( http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-31349_7-20018367-282.html ) in Europe

and the Japanese giant Toyota with the Prius -- the Indian response for which has pleasantly surprised even Toyota--

and the Nissan 'Leaf' electric car (http://www.nissanusa.com/leaf-electric-car/index#/leaf-electric-car/specs-features/index ) too!

And what about the EV scene in China ?
( http://feedroom.businessweek.com/?fr_story=a9bb57fe7112274dff061f0683489688197bf0f1)

And in the home-turf now Mahindra is planning EVs is collaboration with Renault and the Indian pioneer Maini-Reva. Surely you must have brilliant researchers not only in your parent company's R&D labs, but in India too. It may not be too much to ask you to share with us the progress --or the lack of it-- that you have made in the field, and the real reasons for that.

Let us point out an inconsistency in your comment regarding the electric car and the American scene. Since when has the American auto scene begun to serve as a model for either Suzuki or your company? The urban small car was not even in the distant viewfinder of the American auto giants when Suzuki in Japan pioneered and made it a success story in Japan and later in India and many other countries. Your predecessors did not say that it was not successful in America and so it was foolish to go after it. Far from it, Sir...

Suzuki, your parent company, saw a definite need for a small urban car to meet the peculiar needs of the crowded Japnese city streets and they planned and researched and designed for that. Don't you admit that spending a minute in any road junction in any city, large or small, in any developing country, will convince you that more than ever, you need to design a small non-polluting small urban car. It is for the researchers to decide on the appropriate technology to realize that target-- hydrogen, compressed air, fuel cells, solar, electric or even nuclear ??!!!

What are you doing about it--NOW? And what is your summing up about that work? We need to know, Sir, and we think we have a right to know. Please dont tell us that today in America there are only less than 4% electric cars. You can easily find out that once they numbered 100 %. And they were 'killed' not because of an inherent flaw in their genes. We do not think for an instant that a person of your calibre is an ignoramus. We see it as your unwillingness, for your own complicated reasons, to be willing to wake up to the realities of the present day and age.

Sir, look at the wall...not only the wall in Facebook, but The Wall ..... the writing is on the wall. If Maruti, with its penchant for innovation and hard-nosed practical wisdom, can lead from the front and come to the market with a simple, practical electric car, in many ways like the little runabout that made Maruti a household name, well, you can work that old magic again, and put smiles on the faces of your customers. If not...??

With an intelligent man like you, Sir, we dont think we have to 'spell it all out' for you.

The choice, Sir, is yours to make!

And we are waiting!

Most sincerely yours,

The Eco-conscious Indian drivers

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more to follow

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Go Electric-9

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WHAT PRICE OIL ?
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Oil is becoming pricier and pricier, and in economies like ours its rocket-like trajectory affects everything from the stock market to the onion and sugar prices. Whatever the economists might say with their 'deeper' understanding, to the Tom, Dick or Harry...oops! I ought to remember that this is not the India of the British Raj days!...  to the Shankaran, Gopanlan and Madhavan in the street, with no degrees or qualification in Economics, the fuel price increases simply, but surely upset the family budget. And as many of us understand family budgets, they are a far cry from the National or the State budgets--they CANNOT work with a budget deficit...NEVER! So the simple math is, if something goes up, something else has to come down to accommodate it. The result, inevitable 'budget cuts' that leave the wife and kids and the maid servant irritable and counter-productive.

For most of us the shooting oil prices are rated according to the additional burden that we face in our family budgets. But have we ever thought of the TCO factor?

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THINK TCO... ALWAYS
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Today management experts and even computer printer salesmen have a way of evangelizing about TCO--Total Cost of Ownership.

If you buy a small puppy for say, 100 rupees and think that you got lucky. Just wait a moment, or maybe, a month or two. Soon the pup tells you with a growl that it is no longer a pup, and it eats well into your wallet. The vet's bills, the other cost of ownership hassles like replacing your neighbour's doormat that your pet chewed through, to buying the postman a new pair trousers for the one that the enterprising canine bit through, not to speak of the irreplaceable piece of skin and flesh on his bottom that got accidentally in between the sharp teeth of the good doggie..etc etc, will soon 'swell' your 100 precious rupees  to well over a thousand in no time and to more than 10,000 in a matter of months.

All that does not include the 'cost' of peace of mind!

This, then, is what is meant by TCO. I think you  got it.

That tells us, we cannot rate the cost of fuel by mere rupees alone that you part with at the fuel pump every other day. Of course, the price you pay at the pump is not the 'real' price of the thing we all know. It is inflated like a balloon by the greed of governments and corporates, and often we see 'studies' that the stuff you get for about Rs 50 is what actually ought to cost only around Rs 18 or 20 at the most. Recently they made it BS-III compliant; another 50 paise more, but then you are up to international par!! Ho, ho, ho..but my friendly neighbourhood pump serves up the kersene-laced, 950 ml concoction that my engine is accustomed to, BS-II or III...

Forgetting all these little facts of life for a moment, let us take a long, cool look at the oil scenario.

Which are the largest ships in the world? Oil tankers!

A huge oil tanker at sea

( China delivers the largest oil tanker   --->
 http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2008-10/28/content_7150135.htm
Also, --->   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_tanker  )

And when an oil tanker runs into problems, today their huge capacities put the entire world and its eco-system into peril. A famous yesteryear event is the Exxon Valdez tragedy in the pristine polar waters of Alaska. The January, 1990, issue of the prestigious National Geographic magazine had a detailed article about the tragedy and its aftermath.
( http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/1990/01/alaska-oil-spill/hodgson-text )

The National Geographic Society is one of the few US institutions that still maintain a laudable level of concern for the world and its geographical treasures and its eco-system. Its magazine is  a voice of sanity in this world of corporate-funded 'experts' who spout all sorts of 'convenient' proclamations. Through its pages we share the knowledge, expertise and concerns of internationally recognized men and women of eminence, and who, we can easily see, have " no axes to grind"!!

I would ask you to read the above link to the Exxon tragedy first and then move on to the most recent such tragedy--the 'Deepwater Horizon' oil well explosion in the Gulf of Mexico near the US coast.
( http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/10/gulf-oil-spill/bourne-text )

'Deepwater Horizon' explosion

It makes chilling reading. The greed and expediency of the huge oil corporates is revealed for us all to see. And the  more shocking thing is how they are able to influence the government too--the government that is supposed to be the 'guardian' of us all, the guardian of our safety, security and good health, and our right to a good, clean environment. We pay through our noses all sorts of taxes to the government for doing that. All I wish to say here is, read yourself and decide for yourself whether you want to be merely shocked, dismayed, or downright indignant or be chilled to the marrow...these are some of the options you might have, just that and nothing else.

Do you remember that little incident near the Mumbai coast a few months back when two small boats ( I humbly reserve the word 'tanker' for those behemoths of the ocean that carry million of barrels of  crude oil), one carrying some oil, collided and spewed a few hundreds of barrels of oil into the sea?

Mumbai- oil on troubled waters

( Search the Web; here are just a couple of links:
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/mumbai-ship-collision-captain-blames-captain-43592
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article562730.ece  )

Ah, our media dont have the time to highlight or examine such things; they are more comfortable examining Sania's romantic preferences or what some nut thinks about Ayodhya ('...where was that, and say, what is all the brouhaha about??...'  LOL...) We all know that oil and water do not mix well and crude oil in the water is not the best of healthy additives for marine life, or for that matter, life anywhere.

Till date the ' Deepwater Horizon' well has spewed approximately 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. If you want to think that nature will take care of all that, and perhaps more, easily, well I have nothing to say. The massive amounts of oil and chemical dispersants etc ARE causing long-lasting environmental damage from which recovery is a slow, painful process, according to the scientists. Listen to what oceanographer Ian MacDonald at Florida State University says:  "There is a tremendous amount of highly toxic material in the water column, both at the surface and below, moving around in one of the most productive ocean basins in the world." To me that sounds serious, and it cannot be good.

When decisions are taken in the air-conditioned boardrooms of megacorps, insulated from all reality, where only the bottom line of profit and expediency are serious considerations, such tragedies are the only aftermath.

Not only now, but in the future too.

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THERE..... and HERE ?
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Here I wish to throw up a humble question for your consideration, dear reader.

After the Exxon tagedy, the oil company and the government had pumped in billions of dollars into a cleanup drive, and as the Nat Geo article notes, Nature was now limping back to normalcy after nearly a quarter of a century. Today, no doubt, many more billions will be pumped in to clean up and make good the damage done to the environment. Where the money comes from is another question.  Surely the oil companies will spend a small part of their profits, but it is mostly the taxpayer's money, spent by a goverment eager to protect its citizens. Just take a moment to read this quote from the NatGeo article.
"......In 1990, after the Exxon Valdez spill, Congress's Office of Technology Assessment analyzed spill-response technologies and found them lacking. "Even the best national response system will have inherent practical limitations that will hinder spill-response efforts for catastrophic events—sometimes to a major extent," wrote OTA's director, John H. Gibbons. "For that reason it is important to pay at least equal attention to preventive measures as to response systems … The proverbial ounce of prevention is worth many, many pounds of cure."

The US government is at pains to do its best probably  to contain the tragedy. Why? Because it is right at their doorstep. Will Obama the great humanitarian pump in so much money had the incident happened in international waters? Suppose we poor Indians were in the wake of the Gulfstream ocean current and all the pollution landed up at our beaches and upset our lives and our economy? Will their response be on a similar level. We have not forgotten what happened in Bhopal. As far as I know, Union Carbide and Dow Corning are American corporates.

Remembering Bhopal.....

( Bhopal tragedy: just one link: http://www.thecitizenfsr.org/_sgg/mam9s4_1.htm )

I shall leave the conclusions to you individual readers. I realize I dont have to do the thinking for you people.

But I want you to think, and think clearly....what price oil??

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OIL 'BLOOD MONEY'
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This then is the price that you pay ultimately for oil and our addiction to oil. It is NOT an addiction that we have picked up. It is an addiction that we are forced to stay with as a result of the long-term investment that have been made by oil companies the world over, and by the people who create a never-ending need for oil--the car makers. It is a 'cartel'  that is holding the entire world to ransom.

It is time we listened to the sane words of a concerned scientist like the University of Georgia biogeochemist Mandy Joye, who has spent years studying the deep waters of the Mexican  Gulf:
"The Deepwater Horizon incident is a direct consequence of our global addiction to oil. Incidents like this are inevitable as we drill in deeper and deeper waters. We're playing a very dangerous game here.
If this isn't a call to green power, I don't know what is."

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GREEN POWER
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Green is the colour of our future power. Or at least, it ought to be, if we are to preserve our eco-systems. So let us think of setting ourselves free from this debilitating addiction to oil. Americans burn nearly 20 million barrels of oil a day. Nobody has figured out how much we Indians burns. (Or, has somebody? Please give me the figures please.)  It must surely be an unaffordably huge quantity.

In a country like India with so much of hydro, wind and solar power generation potential, why is the government silent about encouraging the green alternatives? As everywhere, policies are defined by clever corporates who have the politicians at the end of a  few strings.

And believe me, though  puppetry is not an optional subject offered  at the B-schools, most of them are master puppeteers!
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more to follow
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Go Electric-8

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THE FIGURES...

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Figures have a way of clarifying an issue, in fact, any issue. So let us look at typical figures. What sort of figures? Not the 36-24-36, though they hold their own attraction, as anybody will admit; but the figures people have a way  of trotting out to justify their arguments.

Conventional wisdom goes like this.

The electric car cannot be a practical reality and a solution NOW for most of us.

The reasons?

Their limited range of less than 100 km on a single charge. The 'fact' that conventional batteries are not good enough to meet present day requirements, and so we have to wait for the emergence of some 'miracle' battery technology, when we can think of looking into the viability of the electric vehicle or the EV. The hoped-for reduction in the 'carbon footprint' is a myth,  as carbon(dioxide) will anyway be produced by the thermal generating plants producing the grid electricity from which the EV's will be charged.

There are a lot of other sillier points often made by our 'well wishers' in industry and government who want to 'safeguard' our interests above everything else. But let us ignore those minor issues for the moment and address one by one the above--from a purely practical point of view.

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.....AND THE FACTS

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What are the facts of the case?

The 'range' dilemma

You look at yourself and your friends, enemies and relatives and second cousin living in Chennai or Bangalore...sorry, Bengalooru or even Mumbai. I for one asked around/ looked around / sneaked around a bit. What is the 'range' that you have typically? In an average car with a full tank of 'gas', and a mileage varying from 10-- 20 km per litre, your range is an impressive 300 to 400 km.

Good. In fact, GREAT!

But tell me honestly, how much gas you had the last time you used your car or, for that matter, your two-wheeler? It is a fact of life that MOST people drive around with just enough to take you about less than 100 km! What a coincidence!

The confidence about the 'range' comes from the certainty of being able to fill up any time from the omni-present petrol pump. But then for the average city driving for a whole day, range is NOT a problem for most of us--unless of course, you are living in an American suburb from where you have a daily commute of a few hours. In our country, despite casting the net far and wide, I have not been able to 'net' a commuter who drives say, about 200-300 km daily.

FACT: The typical range you need / use is very much less than 100 km a day.

As a kid I remember the preparations for an 'adventure' (nothing more than a couple of hundred miles) by car back in the 1950s. The two things every intrepid driver carried were two large 'jerry cans' of a few gallons capacity each. One for water and the other for fuel; the much-needed fuel that assured you an extension of 'range' in an emergency. As recently as the late 1980s when a few of us undertook a pan-Indian drive in the small, cute Maruti-800, again the 'trunk space' was taken up by two plastic-wrapped 'jerry cans'  of you know what!

FACT: 'Recharging' with gas at the pump takes three minutes; on the roadside with your jerry cans and rubber tube and the 'help and advice' of co-passengers and passers-by, it takes anything from fifteen to thirty minutes! Recharging an EV's batteries will take considerably longer--at least with the current battery and charging technologies.

We will look at this later in detail. But, for the present, it is not an issue as we are staying well within the one-time-charged range of about 100 km.

The battery issue

Now, what about batteries? Lead-acid batteries are the ‘staple’ of the battery department--the kind we see in our cars and trucks, in home inverters and nestled below railway coaches. Of course, they are heavy. So when you look at the energy that it can give per kg of its own weight, well, it may not look very attractive. Currently we have lighter batteries with better capacities and recharging characteristics like the Lithium battery. But their cost per watt is rather on the high side. Then there are other newer and more exotic batteries under development. But let those come in their own sweet time.

Let us not say that the humble lead-acid is not 'good enough'. They are the current workhorses of heavy industry and the railways, not to speak of the many institutions that rely on day-long battery back-up of their computers and other mission-critical equipment. From telephone exchanges to mobile phone towers to the data centres and the humble homes, lead-acids are holding their own, and capably too. Just because the technology is the same as yesteryear's batteries does not mean that today's lead-acids are shy of heavy duty performance or reliability.

A case in point is the batteries used in railway coaches. They run day in, day out, often getting abused when trains get held up for long intervals, when they get discharged to zero without the running dynamos/alternators to charge them; yet they give a better than average performance overall. The situation is much worse in the air-conditioned coaches as there the load is much greater.  Visit the local data centres, banks, large internet cafes, department stores, in fact any mission-critical institution, talk to the techie in charge and ask him about back-up times, reliability etc. Take a look at the batteries too, if they will let you. Ten out of ten, they will be the sturdy old lead-acids. Surprised?!!

An electric forklift truck

Try to visit any 'heavy' factory or industrial centre and you will see that small runabouts 'carrying' things around. They are the forklift trucks--you can recognize them by the 'forks' that stick out in front and which carry the loads. They are sturdy, they can 'turn on a 50 paise coin' (heh heh... who wants to use the phrase 'turn on a dime'? Mini quiz: What is a dime? If you know what it is, how much is it worth? Does its value have anything to do with the turning radius of a vehicle? No, no, you can’t look at the dictionary or ask your friend...) and they carry heavy loads. And in factories they usually work all the shifts, often round the clock.

What drives them? A motor + a controller + lead-acid batteries! In most factories when one set of batteries get exhausted, they do a quick 'battery swap' with a charged set, and in minutes the forklift can get back to work. This scenario has been part of everyday reality for so many years right here in our own country. All the while the naysayers have been repeating themselves hoarse that the EV is not practical. The EV is running in every 'heavy' factory floor. No need to believe my words; you can arrange a visit and speak to the operators (yes, the 'drivers') and the engineers there. They may not be built for speed like the street car. But when you tote up the load + the speed + the total time of running, you will see that it is a practical EV.

Typical forklift motor being installed into a car

In fact many EV enthusiasts abroad look for old forklift motors and controllers when contemplating a 'cheap' EV conversion of their old cars. Today you can just 'Google' for phrases like 'EV conversion' and bring up hundreds of hits on the Web. Try it today. You will see that so many enterprising and eco-conscious people abroad have converted their ordinary cars into practical EVs with simplicity and ease using parts from a forklift! What is preventing us from doing that--NOW?

FACT: Practical EVs are possible with existing technologies.

The'carbon footprint' reality

Education is sometimes a double-edged sword. What prepares you on the one hand for tackling the problems of today's world in a positive manner can also give you the tools to 'twist' reality. The 'carbon footprint' fallacy is one such.

What is this carbon footprint? Simplified, it means the overall amount of carbon dioxide that is emitted into the atmosphere by a particular process. So the argument of the 'experts' is that say, a million cars burning fossil fuels spew xxxx tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Charging a million EVs require xxx units of electricity, and generating that much electricity takes burning xxx tonnes of coal or oil in thermal power stations, which creates xx tonnes more carbon dioxide than burning fossil fuels. Oh, that is atrocious!

This is when the old saying 'lies, damn lies and then statistics' has to be remembered. This is the way figures can be manipulated by an 'educated' expert to support his --or his sponsor's-- viewpoint.

Even if we accept the 'expert's' figures as 'Gospel Truth', let us ask a few questions.

What are the figures of the carbon dioxide emission of the engine that you have taken? The ‘best’ ones, when the engine is at its optimum? We all know that the typical vehicle engine produces its best efficiency and least pollution at only an optimum RPM or speed. In practice, a vehicle undergoing the 'start-stop-idle-start-crawl' drill and at times on an up-grade in the road, produces much much more pollution products. Nothing has been invented yet to tackle that.

How much of the power grid electricity is produced by thermal generating plants? In Kerala, for example, we have only clean hydel power. I spoke to a power engineer and he told me that today huge power plants are designed for efficiency. They meet stringent pollution/emission standards. And it is easier to design and operate such a plant for an optimum performance, both in output and in pollution. The expertly-monitored power plant is not running like the typical car caught in a mad traffic jam, with the driver revving the engine, wanting to ‘escape’ quickly.

And what about the increasing relevance of renewable technologies like solar and wind solutions? These days even home owners are investing money in solar and wind generators to escape the clutches of the greedy power companies. Wind and solar power is the 'cleanest' that man had learned to generate..correction, extract, from nature.

FACT: The 'carbon footprint fallacy' is a 'created myth'.

FACT:

Your EV will make a big DIFFERENCE.

It will make a difference to the carbon footprint.

It will make a difference to the 'air quality' of cities.
And surely, it will make a difference to your 'pocket'!!

Converted cars .....

 

...with batteries and motor replacing gas engine.

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WINNERS... AND LOSERS

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In any situation, if one is dispassionate, it is interesting to watch both sides of an argument. When the situation moves such that one side has good and solid answers for everything the other side brings up, the stridency of the arguments go up. There usually is then a 'barrage of proofs' why something is not good or viable

I always think: if something is not really good, why waste your breath shouting against it? It will die a natural death because it just is not good enough to survive. Why bother to 'kill' it, put it safely in a coffin and drive in the last nails???

It is because of fear. Fear that you are going to LOSE.

This is the no-win situation in which the oil and car companies find themselves. They ARE afraid of the future trends. If they have some sense and any civic responsibility left, they would do well to side with the customer ready and willing to make a change for the better, and offer him a new choice that he prefers. I have found that even those who consider themselves as 'pretty ordinary' and not at all tech-savvy, display an extraordinary level of common sense when it comes to spending their hard-earned money on something. I am firm in my belief that the average man in the street has more principles than the top executives of multi-nationals when it comes to civic good and eco responsibilities. He will put his money on solutions that he thinks will mitigate the dire situation. I have faith in his goodness to do that; he surely will, PROVIDED he has a clear choice before him.

What are the choices before him now? To exercise a choice you need at least two kinds of something. What we have before us is only a choice of colours and shapes and 'options'. Like the grand-daddy of the auto industry Henry Ford said, '...you could have any colour--so long as it is black...''. A wise business man, he produced his Model-T in only one colour –black-- because it made economic sense. That is what companies bother about--does it make economic sense FOR THEM; not whether it makes ‘sense’ in the broader context.

What is our benign Government’s stand on the need to offer the man in the street a choice of at least one humble model of an EV against a 'bevy of fossil-fuelled beauties'? What is their idea about encouraging at least those with the knowledge and the initiative and the money to go the electric way? What about legislation as the ‘carrot and the stick’ to take care of the situation?

None that I have heard of....

We will look at what the wider world is doing in the field of EVs, and cast our eyes on some really 'fab' EVs that are now beginning to be available, in our later posts.

Until then remember to check out the things that you have learned about and form your own opinions and choices.

And keep those mental batteries charged!

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more to follow

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