Comments on: Isn’t it good Norwegians would

By: Notsure

Notsure — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:26:39 +0000

@lurker #4
Good point regarding road infrastructure cost too.
I do think that in old north indian cities Jaipur, ludhiana type cities electric mini tram like stuff would be effective.
Regarding Ox, It is one of nearly 100 such firms that are getting attention.
Sadly not 1 with an indian R&D or sales operation.

By: Amit

Amit — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:07:50 +0000

There was a documentary that came out couple of years ago, titled ‘Who Killed the Electric Car?’ Quite an interesting film on how electric cars introduced in CA were pulled out of circulation and destroyed by the car companies.

By: lurker

lurker — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:49:34 +0000

The problem with electric cars is that they still need require roads. This brings up two serious problems: first, for cars to be reasonably effective means of urban transit, roughly 50% of the surface area of a city must be devoted to driving surfaces. (In some American cities, such as Phoenix, Arizona, the number actually exceeds 60%). Given the tremendous density of existing Indian cities, this is not really feasible. China has been able to accomplish this feat via the forced clearances of many millions of people, but in India I don’t see this as a possibility (thank goodness).

The second problem is that the roads must not only exist, but be designed in a well-structured hierarchy of motorways, arterial roads, capillary streets, and so forth. This isn’t something that can develop organically; it requires very high levels of centralization, competency, and capital. I would not hold my breath waiting for the government to suddenly acquire these traits.

What would be ideal is if there were a transportation system that could be built into the existing urban fabric, without causing displacements — and could be built in a piecemeal, ad-hoc fashion, by various independent public and private agents. As long as we’re dreaming, it would be nice if such a system required far less energy than cars, and could be built for less money than automotive infrastructure.

Such a system exists, and this is what it looks like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7hgipbHBK8

I’m working on bringing it to India.

By: lurker

lurker — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:08:25 +0000

There was a company called Reva which actually released a battery operated car in Indian market, but did not get much newsprint. After a few years of releasing the car, it got some publicity when (as far as I remember) Akshaye Khanna bought one ( even he did not know that a battery operated car exists in Indian market, when he learnt he decided to buy that).

So, people are trying, but the endeavors are individualistic almost

By: pankaj

pankaj — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:59:16 +0000

Atanu you will be asking the same way as i am asking that why did not india’s rulers do something about primary education and most importantly Population Control.

By: lurker

lurker — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:43:44 +0000

You would be interested in looking at this link also, regarding electric cars and the initiative take by Shai Agassi and group called the Project Better Place

http://www.projectbetterplace.com/