The EV Bandwagon
Nowadays wherever you go or whoever you speak to, the only thing being talked about is electric mobility. Nobody talks about the requisite infrastructure.
Last month I had the e-tron at my disposal over a weekend thanks to Audi and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Being a right-hand drive, this particular car must have been made for the United Kingdom market and, thus, the plug for the charger was the UK flat three-pin. To use this plug, I had to get a flat-to-round-pin 15-ampere adapter. It lasted precisely for 10 minutes before going up in smoke. Before the car was sent to me, Audi had very generously sent us a wall-mounted charger. However, we were unable to install the charger because it requires 30 kilovolts of power supply for it to work.
The point that I am trying to make here is that if an ordinary household has a five-kV power meter and an electric car requires such a lot of power, imagine the quantum of extra power that will be required. Will our grids be able to supply the extra power required?
The amount of money the government is making from taxes on fuel per litre is staggering. Do you think they will let go of this milch cow? They will bump up the price of electricity and everybody will have to pay, whether one owns a car or not. Last but not least is the worrisome matter of used batteries. At the moment nobody knows what they will do with the mountains of used batteries, how these will be disposed of or recycled. Does anyone have a plan for this?
Today a seven- or eight-year-old car can be sold for about 30 to 40 per cent of its invoice value, depending on the mileage and condition, of course. What will be the resale value of an EV with 50 per cent life?
These are only a few of the ticklish issues related to electric vehicles that need to be addressed pronto.
EDITOR – ASPI BHATHENA
