For past couple of months ( since Battery Day ), Elon
Musk has been talking of :
Ø An
EV selling for $ 25,000
Ø Having
a Lithium Battery costing $ 50 – 55 per Kwh
Ø Giving
a range of 500 miles per full charge ( 20 – 30
minutes ? )
Ø Likely
to be launched in 2023 ( 3 years )
For past few days, Social Media is abuzz with
possibility of TESLA buying out DAIMLER
In next couple
of days, can we expect Media to go viral with talk of TESLA buying out APTERA ?
Here is why :
Aptera is a Solar EV company which made following
announcement on 04 Dec :
Aptera's Solar-Powered EV Goes From 0 to 60 MPH in
3.5 Seconds
We
Learned A LOT About The Aptera Today
/ Clean Technica - 09 Dec 2020
https://www.aptera.us/post/aptera-reveals-first-never-charge-solar-vehicle
Highlights :
Ø Aptera Motors today
announced it has introduced the first solar electric vehicle (sEV) that requires no charging for most daily use
and boasts a range of up to 1,000 miles per full charge
Ø “With Aptera’s Never Charge technology,
you are driven by the power of the sun. Our built-in solar array keeps your battery pack
topped off and anywhere you want to go, you just go,” says Co-Founder Chris
Anthony.
Ø The Aptera vehicle
is made of lightweight
composites that are many times stronger than steel, allowing its unique body shape to slip through the
air with an unheard-of drag coefficient (Cd) of .13.
Ø 0-60 MPH in 3.5 sec
/ Top Speed of 110 MPH
Ø 172" long, 88” wide and 57”
high. Aptera has 25 cubic feet of luggage capacity
Ø Weight
> 2000 lbs ( 900 Kg )
Ø Integrated solar can
be configured to provide up to 45 miles of range per day with over 3 square meters and 180 efficient
solar cells designed into the body structure. This makes Aptera the first
vehicle capable of meeting most daily driving needs using solar power alone.
( Refer : Product
Specification Sheet )
Ø Aptera will be available to
pre-order at www.aptera.us beginning at 4 p.m. PST on Dec. 4.
Ø Pricing is between
$25,900- $46,900+
===================================================
You cannot blame Elon Musk if he is tempted to make an
offer to buy out Aptera !
Or, for that matter, TATA and MAHINDRA also to queue up
!
Even Society of
Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles ( SMEV ) may consider approaching Aptera
for a licensing agreement
How
about NITI Aayog phoning Aptera co-founder, Chris Anthony (chris@epicboats.com / info@aptera.us
) ?
One of the main reasons why EV have not picked up in India is lack of Battery Charging
Stations
I think, we have close to 250 stations ( in entire country )
USA has 27,000 EV stations ( and 115,000 petrol / diesel
stations ). It is reported that Joe Biden is planning to raise this number to 500,000 in 4 years
( some 304
per day )
China, in 2019, had 560,000 EV stations and adding 1,000
per day !
Our target for EV is : 30
% of India’s entire vehicle fleet by 2030 ( - when we
can expect 300 million vehicles )
30 % will be 90 million EVs, to be produced / sold in next 10 years
( 9 million per year / as against our total so far
of less than 15,000 ) . Or , am I getting confused here ?
This EV production target ( ? ) figure must be viewed in the
light of the fact that our current production of ICE ( petrol – diesel ) cars
is about 3 MILLION per year
Read :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_car_use_by_country
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_vehicle_industry_in_India
How many EV charging stations will we need to support these many
EVs – considering that even a car equipped with DC fast charging would
typically require an hour to get charged to 80 % ?
Read this in the context of Aptera ( 3 wheeler / not a car ),
which charges as follows ( ie; if required ) :
110v
STD > :13 miles/ hour / 500
miles/ hour with rapid DC chargers
[ Refer : Govt
mulls installing EV charging kiosks at around 69,000 petrol pumps in country ]
Apart from that , we just won’t have enough local Lithium
Battery production for these many EVs
Only 2 companies are seriously “ considering “ setting up
Battery plants , by end of 2022 !
MY TAKE :
Ø
With a price tag of $ 26,000 ( approx.. Rs 19 lakh + import duty),
Aptera ( a 3 Wheeler
) has to be ruled out , even though it eliminates “ range anxiety “, due its
solar roof charging
Ø
Even if manufactured locally ( under license ), its selling
price cannot be brought down to ( say ) Rs 7 lakhs ( similar to price of Kandy
Model K 27 - $ 10,000/- after federal tax credits in
USA . Kandy sports a Lithium Battery of 17.69 Kwh ).
In China there are a few similarly priced EV which
are quite popular
Ø
Can we modify one of our own locally manufactured ICE vehicles into
a Solar Panel Roof charging vehicle, needing a small Lithium
battery ( may be 15 Kwh ? – against Aptera’s lowest 25 Kwh ) ?
Yes , as far back as 2017 , our own ISRO gave a demo
of Maruti
Omni ( weighing 785 Kg ) , retro-fitted with Solar Panels on its
roof !
Read :
Solar
Panels charging Li-ion Batteries of Electric Cars ?..............[ 04 May 2017 ]
A
Breakthrough : in Technology and in Mind-set…………………………..[ 05 June 2017 ]
3000
Km without a Charging Station ?......................................[ 09 Oct 2017 ]
#Solarcar
#Electriccar ………………………………………………………………………[
07 Nov 2017 ]
#ISRO
#MSME #ElectricVehicle ………………………………………………………[
13 Nov 2017 ]
ISRO
: the EV Game-Changer ………………………………………………………….[
22 Nov 2017 ]
Let Us go
Dutch ! ……………………………………………………………………………….[ 21 Jan
2018 ]
Holy
Grail for Electric Vehicles …………………………………………………………..[
17 Feb 2018 ]
#E-Vehicle
#ISRO #FAME #Pollution………………………………………………….[
28 Mar 2018 ]
At Long Last ?..........................................................................[
22 July 2018 ]
Ray
, a drop of golden Sun ………………………………………………………………….[
18 Feb 2019 ]
E
– Car Extrapolation : a Wishful Thinking ?..................................[ 20 Mar 2019 ]
Upon
reading this last blog ( sent as E Mail ), I received following replies :
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thu 21-Mar-19 9:48 PM
Dear Hemen,
Many thanks. Congratulations on your vision !
Keep up your blogs !
Prof. Sir Colin Humphreys / Paragraf
===================================================
After reading this blog ( sent as email ),
Shri Sumitesh Das
( Head of Graphene
Business Unit - TATA Steel ),
sent following reply on 04 Oct 2019 :
-----------------------------------------
Dear Shri Hemen Parekh ji,
Thank you for your kind mail regarding the endless
possibilities of graphene.
In particular, the possible usage in cars and buses.
Your blog and views
expressed therein are visionary.
It will take policy makers, scientists and innovators to come
together.
Do keep up the good work.
Best regards.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reference :
India
requires $ 180 Billion investments in production, charging infra : Study
Highlights :
Ø India’s FY30 EV ambition will translate
into,
# total sales of 102 million vehicles,
# annual
battery demand of 158 GWh , a
# support infrastructure of 2.9 million public charge points by that year.
As of March 2020, the number of
registered EVs in India stood at just half a million
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
‘Domestic
companies have it in them to make India an EV hub’ /
09 Nov
Extract :
Ø
Gadkari admitted that there are EV-specific concerns around
batteries, charging and driving range that prevent a large-scale consumer pull,
but these issues are being addressed rapidly.
Ø
On charging infrastructure, he said that the government will
make sure there are enough charging stations — 50 in each district — so that EV
users don’t have to worry about range of the vehicles.
Dear Shri Gadkariji,
If I am not mistaken, India has approx. 700 districts. That means, you are talking of 35,000 EV charging stations. My guess is that this will take nearly 5 years , even if govt succeeds in installing 20 stations EVERY DAY ! ( - against present rate of 1 station every WEEK ? )
I urge
you to inquire with Dr K Sivan ( Director – ISRO ) if his team can come up with
a Solar Roof Panel powered car ( no more than 900 Kg weight ) which can compete
with Aptera – then give away technology - licenses to Indian car manufacturers
for FREE
That
is the ONLY WAY your dream of making India an EV hub can come true
With regards,
Hemen Parekh
/ hcp@RecruitGuru.com
/ 10 Dec 2020
ISRO
CONVERTS A MARUTI OMNI INTO A SOLAR HYBRID ELECTRIC CAR [ 04 May 2017 ]
How 25 Jodhpur engineers developed a world class
Solar Car
[ 19 Jan 2017 ]
No comments:
Post a Comment