Developing EV Infrastructure Anywhere & Everywhere With almost ZERO Investment from Governments’ Fund

Electric Vehicles are gaining traction. Correct!

Electric Vehicles will help reduce pollution on road. Yes!

Automotive Industry is investing heavily on EV Technology. True!

EV is the future. I think so!

With so many advantages of EV what are the Road blockers in this transformation journey?

Answer is: The Road itself.

Auto makers are doing their best to make this a reality, but their vehicles need to run on road, and roads don't have proper infrastructure for charging EVs.

With 1 full night charging to 15 min fast charging. Yes we have achieved it but where is Charging Point ??

Traditional Plan:

Our current plan looks something like this.

• Government will develop infrastructure as we are paying tax for our vehicles and almost everything we use or even if we don't.
• Charging stations will be installed all over the country and then sale of EVs will increase.
• I will be able to take my EV on a long drive and can charge it anywhere and everywhere.

Let's come to the reality now. If you are in Bangalore, which is known as IT hub of India, your new Car might have gone for complete Engine work due to flood in Basements and Roads. When we don't have basic infrastructure of drainage system to handle 2 days rainfall in city like Bangalore, do you really think you will have charging stations all over the country in next 5 years? What to discuss on Traffic rules where you need to give bribe for taking your vehicle on road with all documents upto date. May be these traffic police don't get salary and their only source of livelihood is Bribe.

So what should be the Plan ?

• Auto makers will have to develop their own infrastructure if we have to make EV as Future of Automotive Industry.
• Government can act as a helping hand to make the regulations, company friendly and user friendly. But complete dependency on Government will give no result, and it's not the fault of any particular government, it's the fault of corrupt system. A traffic police on the road is not concern for your safety, he is just taking the advantage of corrupt and harassing rule and regulations. Just imagine how much fine is collected on daily basis in a city like Bangalore itself.

Why it's happening? Very simple, because of harassing regulatory. If you don't wear helmet Rs. 2000 fine, now that traffic police is doing you a favor by asking 1500 and if you question or try to act smartly, you have to end up paying 2000 challan and he will get awarded for collecting that legal fine. He is getting salary to stand on road, but if you need to go to your work pay 2000 or 1500 then go, or else wait there itself doesn't matter how important work you have. Just imagine the situation of a family person who might be getting 10,000 as salary and need to travel for his earning and end up paying 1500 to these uneducated criminals on roadside and still feel happy that he has saved Rs 500 for his family. I was always thinking of what is mixed emotions and this incident fits perfect.

And don't think that if you are wearing helmet then you can escape, he has a huge list of challans, which no one even knows, may be not even the government and you have to pay if you want to go. And government is thinking that if I increase the fine people will follow traffic rules. But no one is there to question these criminals standing on roadside without ID card or any identity proof to represent that they are really the cops. It's all because of a very simple and caring thought: Increase the fine to maintain traffic rules and regulations. If the fine is nominal, traffic police won't harass citizens much but due to huge fine he is thinking that he is doing a great favor to people by reducing 500 and not making the challan and warming his pocket for evening drinks. And it's everywhere, some places are on it's peak and some are moderate that's only the difference. Similar thing is happening for "No Parking Fine" collection. Where there is no parking area, and only small lanes are available, people don't have choice to park other than lanes, and most of time they are not aware that it's No Parking zone, but they end up paying huge fine. Just multiply Rs 1500 to 100 vehicles daily, and 100 is very small number. These guys are so hard working and self motivated that they break their own records everyday.

It's a huge black money which no one is talking about. And you will be shocked to know that not even 0.1 % reaches to government.

The reason of covering Traffic system under EV topic is intentional. Traffic system is a vital part of our Transport system, and it has power to collapse all innovation and development made by intellects in a single shot.

• Let's go to our main topic. So, can we develop EV infrastructure anywhere and Everywhere? Yes, instead of waiting for EV charging stations, we can enable every House, Shop, Restaurant on the roadside to setup their own Charging point. Again, it's not forceful decision for all, those who want to invest in parallel income source can invest in installing Charging Facility and get paid for the service.
• Now comes the role of Techies. We need to connect all charging stations/points through a single App, which shows all available charging points on the way to a particulat destination. And there are many possibilities of feature enhancements like : User should be able to block a particular time slot in advance, He should be able to see the review of charging points etc., he should be able to track the availability of charging point. In a nutshell, very similar application to Food Delivery Portals.
• By doing so, if I say I have 50 charging points in 20 km of journey, then yes I am right. Also I can see which one is unoccupied, so that I don't have to go to a particular charging point and wait for my turn. And once I have 50 options to charge my EV on the GO, I will be UNSTOPPABLE !

Hope it was a thought provoking read. Please feel free to share your comments. And apologies, if I have hurt someone's sentiment. The only purpose of using some inappropriate words is to make someone aware that what's the ground reality of our small decisions taken with all good intentions.

Best Regards

Ravi Singh

Client Partner

Sasken Technologies Ltd.

www.Sasken.com

Founder ( SalesMatinee.com )