The Praful Bidwai Column
The electric vehicle solution
A massive transportation crisis is growing in South Asian cities, marked by high congestion, heavy pollution, and chaotic, unsafe traffic. This is lowering the quality of life in three ways, besides contributing massively to climate change -- the gravest threat humanity faces today.
First, congestion forces people to waste long periods in commuting, typically in nerve-wracking conditions amidst fierce rivalry for road-space. In many cities, commuting time has doubled over the past decade.
Second, air pollution is causing grievous health damage. Third, transport expenses are rising, necessitating cuts in spending on other necessities.
The crisis will worsen as private vehicles proliferate, driven by middle class consumerism and by policies which subsidise them. The region's private vehicle production is rising much faster than GDP, typically by 10% plus. India's car output has doubled over 5 years.
Automobile emissions of suspended particulate matter (SPM), and nitrogen and sulphur oxides, account for 60% -plus of the urban air-pollution load. Fine particulates contain some 40 carcinogens. The health damage runs into billions of dollars.
Yet, thanks to automobilisation, 57% of Indian cities record SPM levels exceeding one-and-a-half times the permissible standard. India's top 10 "hotspots" include small cities like Raipur, Kanpur and Alwar.
The entry of the Tatas' Nano will make things worse. It's unlikely the Nano can meet, without a hefty price rise, Euro-IV emission norms by 2010. In any case, its sheer numbers, and those of other models on the way, will cause more pollution and congestion. Yet, shamefully, India has lowered excise duties on small cars.
This policy direction must be urgently reversed. We must promote public transport, and discourage private vehicles, which waste resources, and use road-space iniquitously.
In our cities, cars and two-wheelers hog 60% to 80% of road-space, but only deliver 15% to 20% of passenger trips. Buses occupy under 20% of road-space, yet generate up to 60% of trips.
Cars demand high maintenance. They usually occupy prime space -- even when unused. Studies show that if owners were made to pay the economic rent for parking, many would stop using cars. At Mumbai's Nariman Point, the true annual market price of parking-space for a car would exceed its cost 10 times over!
Runaway private transport growth must be curbed through higher taxation -- current rates are unacceptably low -- stiff parking fees, Singapore-style bans on odd and even numbered cars, carpools, and pedestrians-only zones.
Above all, we must promote efficient, affordable, non-polluting public transport, and bicycles. If Paris can have 200 km of bicycle paths, so can Delhi, Karachi or Dhaka.
Bus Rapid Transit, with dedicated bus-lanes, is worthy, and is pursued in many European cities. Delhi's BRT was poorly planned and implemented, without public education. It was all but sabotaged by an elite-driven media campaign. But the BRT principle is sound.
Electricity-powered public transport is important to any rational urban system because it's non-polluting and noiseless. It includes Metrorail, trams and trolley-buses drawing power from overhead lines.
We shouldn't unthinkingly promote Metros. They cost 10 times more than BRTs and require heavy use (like hourly 40,000 passenger-trips per line) to pay for themselves. Most cities don't have that commuting pattern.
Today's phenomenal petroleum prices make small electric vehicles (EVs) super-attractive. Insofar as we permit (limited) private transport, battery-operated cars/2-wheelers are especially relevant. They cost only one-tenth as much to run as petrol-driven vehicles.
I've used an EV -- Indian-made Reva, the world's largest-selling purely electric car -- for more than three years. It's almost as easy to drive/maintain as a bicycle.
EVs are extremely simple machines, without fuel injection/mixing, electric synchronisation, gearbox transmission, and pollution and noise control. Their battery-driven motor sits atop the axle and transmits power directly. The gear-free driving is pure pleasure. I've had only one problem with the Reva: a shock-absorber change.
EVs do have a carbon footprint -- from manufacture, to consumption of materials, to final waste disposal. But 80 percent of the life-cycle pollution from petrol/diesel vehicles is caused during their running. Here, EVs score decisively.
Admittedly, EVs have a limited range, typically 60 to 130 km, depending on battery design. They need frequent recharging: typically, two to six hours a day, for three to five days a week.
EVs aren't spacious "family vehicles." Most seat two adults and two children. (The Reva can pull four adults in cramped conditions.) With some planning of trips, and proper charging, one can comfortably negotiate a city with an EV.
Personally, I've never been stuck with a dead battery even while driving all the way to the international airport from Central Delhi and back.
Driving an EV transforms one's experience of roads as sites of tension, cut-throat competition, mouthing of abuse and display of rage.
There is, then, a strong case for public support for EVs. Besides launching trolley-buses and reviving/strengthening trams, this can take three forms. First, governments should offer EVs price subsidies and rebates in VAT, road taxes, free parking facilities, etc.
Many European Union governments do so. EVs enjoy free parking in London, besides 100% depreciation in the first year. They pay no congestion charge (GBP 8 a day) in Central London.
Besides price subsidies, France mandates that one-fifth of all new cars in public fleets must be electric. In Italy, EVs enjoy a 30% price rebate, free parking and road-tax exemptions. In Japan, EVs get handsome tax support, besides ¥20 billion funding for battery development.
No wonder more Revas are running in London than in Bangalore, where they're made. The Delhi government has just announced a 29.5% rebate on EVs. This must be emulated.
Second, Southern governments must initiate collaborative programmes for developing new-design lightweight, high-power batteries (e.g. lithium-ion) for EVs to replace lead-acid batteries, whose design is 100 years old.
Third, governments must create an infrastructure: free charging-points in city centres and car-parks, which will greatly enhance the range of EVs and make them competitive with petrol-driven cars.
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