In Driver's Seat
Indias quest for an all-electric future in mobility by 2030 has thrown up an unlikely hero in Saurabh Kumar of EESL.
- Feb 6, 2018,
- Updated Feb 8, 2018 1:39 PM IST
An electric car charging station in Central Delhi set up a couple of months ago at Niti Aayog's office has not been used for weeks. That hardly anybody at the think tank uses an electric car is an obvious but not the only reason. Set up to showcase technology enhancements in car charging around the world, this fast charger is incompatible with the only three electric car models that are available in India. With Niti Aayog at the forefront of making policies for mass adoption of electric cars, the irony of this defunct car charging point is not lost on anybody.
The fast changing dynamics of the global electric car industry - types of vehicles, battery costs, charging solutions - where India has little play but which it will have to traverse nevertheless, has resulted in different organisations suggesting different paths to achieve the objective of 100 per cent electric mobility by 2030. But of all the players, often working at cross-purposes, government-owned Energy Efficiency Services Ltd, or EESL, a joint venture of four power public sector units, has emerged an unlikely hero.
An electric car charging station in Central Delhi set up a couple of months ago at Niti Aayog's office has not been used for weeks. That hardly anybody at the think tank uses an electric car is an obvious but not the only reason. Set up to showcase technology enhancements in car charging around the world, this fast charger is incompatible with the only three electric car models that are available in India. With Niti Aayog at the forefront of making policies for mass adoption of electric cars, the irony of this defunct car charging point is not lost on anybody.
The fast changing dynamics of the global electric car industry - types of vehicles, battery costs, charging solutions - where India has little play but which it will have to traverse nevertheless, has resulted in different organisations suggesting different paths to achieve the objective of 100 per cent electric mobility by 2030. But of all the players, often working at cross-purposes, government-owned Energy Efficiency Services Ltd, or EESL, a joint venture of four power public sector units, has emerged an unlikely hero.