Is India ready for electric vehicles or not

Reading Time: 4 minutes

” Most of developed giants are switching to electric vehicles, is that possible for India right now or not, CEV ex-cogitated on this agenda on Friday, 25 August.”

Is India ready for electric vehicles or not MINUTES:

The purpose was to discuss the advent of electric vehicle (EVs), and its impact in future.

The following points supported the introduction of EVs in Indian markets:

  • Electric vehicles are paving their way to roads at an impressive pace in many developed countries like USA, China, etc.
  • Considering the emission from gasoline and electricity produced for EVs (no exhaust) gasoline vehicles cause far more havoc to earth’s air, thus EVs have a potential to construct a transportation system that can mitigate the climate changes by lowering the GHGs emissions.
  • If we talk in terms of efficiency EVs stand far ahead of gasolines with average around 90%, whereas internal combustion engines are as efficient as 40%, from consumer point of view.
  • EVs introduction in India can help cut down petroleum products imports and hence will make India more self reliant.
  • Moreover in coming years petrol and diesel prices are going to boost up hence switching to EVs would be economical for individual also.
  • EVs with them also bring a promising source of income to huge section and a great possibilities of startups in India.
  • Recycling batteries is considered a curse for this industry but it could be a whole new industry in itself.
  • Launching the EVs in public transport an help gain consumer acceptance thus can boost private vehicles market, also implementation in public transport is easy with minimum resources like charging points at fixed stops only.
  • Government as well as private companies are also taking interest in EVs, like TATA, Ashok Leyland, Aether Energy (indigenous two-wheeler manufacturing startup), Mahindra and Mahindra Motors all are putting efforts to make EVs less costlier and convenient for Indian consumers.

The following points were there which indicated that though a potential tool to fight global warming yet for India it is not possible to implement now:

  • As the number of EVs increase, the electricity supply demand will boost rapidly and it would be difficult to set up new power stations at that rate.
  • Infrastructure is another one of most biggest obstacle. New manufacturing factories, service centers, new charging stations, etc all this will cost a huge. Moreover, casual mechanics will also needed to be trained to be able to repair the new electric automobiles.
  • The battery on which EVs operate are not easily recyclable and its disposal is also threatening for environment.
  • India’s lithium reserve are surely not sufficient to cater the increasing demand hence for batteries we will have to depend on other countries.
  • Technical limitation like more charging time, low operating time, low range, low speed, less safety, etc are set backs for EVs.
  • Awareness in India among common public is also big challenge, on the other hand social stigma and skepticism are also existing like people in Delhi don’t prefer e-rickshaw because it appears cheap and uncomfortable to travel in them. So work is also needed to be done on asthetics.
  • Many startups in past few years failed as the cost of EVs are much more than gasoline vehicles.
  • Most of the problems related to EVs need a technical approach to be solved but in India research is not that much acknowledged and encouraged.

Conclusion:

India right now can not choose to switch to electric vehicles, but surely it is on a right track to achieve a sustainable transportation system. But to reach there we whole as a country have to put efforts, government need to come with scheme like FAME INDIA, new policies that encourage public to go for electric car even if they cost little higher. Along with this marketing is another prospect to focus upon, promotion of these cars by celebrities to break the social stigma. Hybrid cars can also act as transient stage between gasoline to electric cars. Participation by Indian students in technical events like FORMULA STUDENT must be appreciated so that the answers to technical problems can be produced from Indian engineering colleges. Along with these the oil companies should be supported by government to provide their petrol pumps with electric vehicles charging services also. Gasoline vehicles manufacturing companies should be motivated to convert ICs cars to electric ones.

Then only we can move in era where in India problems like poor air quality, energy insecurities, dependence on other nations no longer exists.

Minutes by:

Rahul, Electrical engineering (2nd year), SVNIT.

 

 

Self Driving Vehicles: Good idea or a bad idea?

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Self Driving Vehicles: Good idea or a bad idea?

Laziness is the father of innovations”, beautifully quoted by Mr Stephen Shapiro, an American keynote speaker and businessman.

Consider an example of a human going for running some errands some miles away. “Walking would wear me out, so let me go on a bicycle. Well a bicycle is faster but efforts are still high, let me drop the idea of a bicycle. How about a two wheeler? No! It is hot out there and I hate dirt. Yes! I should use a car.” This type of laziness and comfort level is generally acceptable, but a lazy and luxury-oriented mind does not stop here. This is what it thinks, “Oh god! I am sleepy right now, how good it would be if someone would steer for me? Why to even sit in a car, I should learn teleportation. If only could I travel across the world with a blink of an eye?”

Well right now the first of the extreme desires of a human is starting to get fulfilled. An automatic car! Want to take a nap while driving? No problem. That is what a self driving car is all about. Okay, that is what a high amount of people think. The main aim of introducing autonomous car concept is not laziness or desires, but is to increase the safety measures of a car.

Safety is now the primary consideration for every vehicle manufacturer. As a customer, I would first have to predict if I could survive driving that car or not. “A little care and accidents become rare”, this is a famous road safety quote and a very essential one. According to survey, around 137,000 people died in India due to accidents in 2013 alone. This is more than the number of people killed in all our wars put together. According to Delhi Traffic Police reports, the major reason for accidents is a driver’s fault.

Self Driving Vehicles: Good idea or a bad idea?

A self driving car comes with sensors attached with the calls all around it. The sensors keep track of the objects around it, the distance of objects from the car, the speed with which they are approaching the vehicle etc and accordingly the vehicle decides the speed of car movement, the steering direction etc. This way the accidents can be prevented. This is what the computer aided vehicle (CAV) manufacturers claim.

Self Driving Vehicles: Good idea or a bad idea?

In India, the road traffic regulations are not much strict. People feel free to break some laws due to lower restrictions compared to other nations like USA, Canada, Germany and many more. These traffic jam costs the government around Rs 60000 crore a year due to fuel wastage, time delay etc. If everyone uses fully autonomous cars, there would be no traffic rules violations, no illegal road crossing, no traffic lights jump etc, so there will be smooth traffic flow and much time and money would be saved.

Productive use of driving time: “Time is money”. According to a Times of India survey, an average Indian spends about 18 days in a year behind the steering wheel. That is a lot of time wasted in driving. If one could use this time, much productivity could come out. Self driving cars could provide that too.

Self Driving Vehicles: Good idea or a bad idea?

Vehicle life and fuel efficiency: Human efficiency while driving is much less. Improper acceleration, deceleration, braking, gear shifts etc would wear out the car transmission parts. A computerized control would do a better task in these areas and hence a high vehicle life would result. This could also increase the fuel efficiency of the vehicle because of steady and identical aerodynamic effects on every car on the road.

Aid for elderly people and disables people: How many times have you wanted to go out in a car, but couldn’t due to lack of driving ability and no person to drive you there? There are no such problems if you have a self driving car. Self driving cars would facilitate the travel of elderly people and disabled people. With aging, reflexes and eyesight become weak. Self driving car would pose as a boon for them.

Self Driving Vehicles: Good idea or a bad idea?

Unemployment: But this is India; there are more people than it can feed. According to statistics, around 18 million people are unemployed in India. According to a case study, around 17 Million people are employed in road transport sector. If all the vehicles are replaced by driverless vehicles, unemployment would rise up to double of its current value. Not only drivers, but traffic police would be jobless. This poses a huge problem for India. “How can we allow such self driving vehicles when we already have a huge amount of unemployed people?” this statement was given by our current minister of road transport and highways, Mr Nitin Gadkari.

Fault in technology: Well, whatever the advantages discussed are based on an ideal driverless vehicle. But there is a potential for technology to go wrong. Driverless cars are based on programming and machine learning. Those codes are to be written by humans. There are possibilities of codes to have some bugs or glitches. Even if the vehicle performs well at first, it may happen that there are some bugs in the update the company provides. So there is a possibility of technology going wrong.

Privacy concerns are major these days. Threats for crimes and safety are increasing due to privacy leak these days. People can track you through GPS and follow you; they can have a track where you are and where you are headed to. And if a software drives your car, it becomes easier for the car to get hacked. Though the company would provide high security but software is always vulnerable to hack despite of all securities.

Self Driving Vehicles: Good idea or a bad idea?

Expensive: The most important aspect that would come in India’s way of self driving cars is cost. Software and hardware for self driving cars would cost a lot to the customer. The most sold car in India in July 2017 is Alto. It cost around Rs 2.8 lakh. This is what an average Indian wants to spend on cars. Most people want to have a car under Rs 8 lakh. Hence self driving car won’t have much market in its initial period.

Many more pros and cons can be listed in this subject, but the important ones that would affect the most are listed above. A self driving car has lots of pros and cons. To solve the unemployment problems, driverless technology can be used only as an aid to driver or an assistant to driver. But this won’t solve traffic problems. Hence if we try to eliminate one disadvantage, it would also eliminate one advantage too. So we cannot come to an absolute consensus with this topic of whether to have a driverless environment or to have the system as it is right now.

Differential – A hidden wonder of automobile

Reading Time: 3 minutes

While driving a car have you ever wondered how does the engine drive the wheels? How only one engine drives all the wheels of the car? How does the system manage to transmit the power to the wheels? Let’s have a brief look under the hood and understand a very important concept of an automobile, that is “DIFFERENTIAL”.

Engineering of an automobile is a very vast subject. On an average, about 30,000 parts are used for the manufacturing of a single car. Hence to study automobile, the whole subject is divided into 6 major systems: Chassis, Engine, Transmission, Steering, Braking, Suspension. Differential is a part of Transmission system.

Main aim of transmission, as the name suggests is to transmit the power produced by the engine to the wheels so that the vehicle moves. A transmission in general consists of an input shaft, an output shaft, gears and a differential. The input shaft gets power directly from the engine, which is manipulated according to our needs by gears and finally the output shaft carries the final power.

The differential then comes into action. The differential transmits the the power produced by the output shaft sideways. differential-1.gif (9034 bytes)

As shown in the picture, the differential is situated between the two wheels and it transfers the motion of transmission shaft/output shaft to the rotary motion of the wheels. The transmission shaft rotates the driving pinion, which in turn drives the ring gear (crown wheel). This ring gear is attached to a small sun gear/side gear. This side gear is meshed via the differential pinion gear(planet gear). Both the side gears are connected to the half shafts(axle) connected to the wheels.

Why to use the side gears pinion assembly when we can directly connect the ring gear? Also this work seems to be easy. But this is not all a differential does. A differential is designed for a far more greater purpose.

Whenever an automobile turns, there is a difference in the speeds of the inner and the outer wheels.

Image result for differential automobile

As you can see, the outer wheel of the automobile has to travel a larger distance than the inner wheel in the same amount of time while turning. Hence the speed of outer wheel is more. This can be achieved by unequal and proportionate distribution of power to the wheels. The outer wheel needs more power than the inner wheel and this unequal but proportionate distribution of power is done by the differential.

Differential - A hidden wonder of automobile

The inner half shaft in the figure indicated the part of the shaft connected to the inner wheel while the outer half shaft to the outer wheel. Both the shaft move in anticlockwise direction when moving on a straight road. Hence the power is distributed equally and both the side gears hence the shaft rotate at same speed.

While turning, both shafts do rotate in the same direction. The outer wheel has to move at higher speed than the inner wheel. This produces a couple moment at the differential pinion. This force drives the pinion gear to rotate. Due to this rotation, the side gear of the outer shaft rotates at a rate higher than the inner wheel. The side gear of outer shaft gets an additive rpm while the inner shaft gets a subtractive rpm. Hence due to this production of different speeds in both the wheels, the system is called a differential.

Hence for different turns, different torque is applied on the differential pinion and according powers are provided to the wheels. This was the basic information about differential and transmission. Further the differentials are classified into different types differentials like open differential, locking differential, limited slip differential, electronically controlled limited slip differential, torque vectoring differential etc. But for basic understanding of the differential, this much knowledge is enough.

Visit at Volkswagen Plant, Pune

Reading Time: 4 minutes

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“Why only Volkswagen can build a Volkswagen?”

This is cool line, but you know what’s cooler? The fact that it’s true.

                What you can do just after the exams? Just follow CEV group activities and you will definitely find some great attraction towards CEV group and its activities. We thought to visit something really cool or by which we can enrich our Technical knowledge as well as can have fun with Techies.

We started our journey to visit Volkswagen Pune plant from SVNIT-Surat on the morning of Dec  7th,2014 for Mumbai. After reaching at BCT-Mumbai at 04:00pm, we visited some of the well-known places in Mumbai viz. Gate way of India, Hotel Taj, Churni road-Chopati till 09:00 pm. By the late night of Dec 7th, we reached at Pune and stayed at Hotel. As we were supposed to reach at company plant by 09:30am on Dec 8th, we fresh up early and went there by Tempo Traveller that we have hired. We started our best part of the journey at 10:00am, after the introductory session that has taken by Chaitanya Halbe sir. Here is the journey into one of the biggest and most respected carmakers. A great deal of Thought , Attention and Innovation goes into the every stage-process to built each car that is truly Das Auto ( The Car ).

As we all know, Cars can be divided into two groups according to their designs.

  1. Hatch back
  2. Siddan

Volkswagen worldwide

Volkswagen Automobile Group is globally represented by twelve brands- Volkswagen, Passenger Cars, Audi, SEAT, SKODA, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Ducati, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Scania and MAN. The product spectrum ranges from motorcycles to luxury vehicles and heavy trucks.

Total production plants- 106 across 27 countries.

Total employees- 572,800 (including indirect employees)

About Pune Plant

The Volkswagen India plant, situated in the industrial hub of Pune i.e. Chakan -37 km away from Pune city, is one of the most modern facilities in the Volkswagen Group worldwide and has a high level of vertical integration. An initial investment commitment of Volkswagen group is INR 3,800 crores (580 million Euros) and is planning to invest INR 5000 crores more in upcoming years.

The state-of-the-art Pune Plant builds Volkswagen Polo and Vento and SKODA Rapid on a single line at the same time.

Employees- 3,600 (including 1,100 indirect employees and 33 R&D researchers)

Total Area- 575 acres (including 100 acres constructed area)

Investment till date- 700 million Euros

Production of cars per day- 430 cars in 2 shifts

Production Capacity- 130,000 cars in 2 shifts

Cars Produced

  1. Volkswagen Polo since Dec 2009 (Right Hand Drive as well as Left Hand Drive)
  2. Volkswagen Vento since Aug 2010 (Right Hand Drive as well as Left Hand Drive)
  3. SKODA Rapid since Oct 2011 (Right Hand Drive Only)
  4. SKODA Fabia till Dec 2013 only

The manufacturing facility includes Body Shop followed by

Paint Shop and then

Assembly line

  1. Body Shop – Initial stage where car starts taking shape.

Pressed metal (100% Galvanised steel for 100% strength & safety) parts from the Press Shop are received in the Body Shop to create the body shell.

The car bodies are built from bottom to top; starting from the underbody, then the side framers, roof and finally with closure parts viz. doors, bonnet and boot lid with almost 35% of automation.

  1. Paint Shop – Stage in which car is giving its colours

Firstly, the vehicle body undergoes a cleaning process after which it gets the ElectroCoat followed by Coarse Sealent, Underbody Coating and Fine Sealing before getting the Primer Coat.

Finally, finishing and waxing of the body is done and then car body is sent to the assembly line.

Local manufacturers – Asian Paints. (To decrease the manufacturing cost)

  1. Assembly line – Final area of manufacturing

Here, you’ll get a chance to experience German Engineering, made in India. Also, witness one of the fastest marriages of Chassis with remaining car body. The car then moves to the finish line where it gets the steering wheel, airbags, seats and doors.

Local manufacturers – MRF and Apollo for tyres.

Why should you buy Volkswagen cars?

  1. Unique Roof Laser Welding for greater rigidity and zero dampness. (Roof stay stronger and more secure even after years.)
  2. 6 years of anti-perfurism warranty
  3. Inline Measurement process done by Robots for zero-error body that lasts years.
  4. 11-stage Paint Process for longer-lasting beauty and Ro-Dip Technology for 360* paint coverage for excellent corrosion protection.

 Extra tests carried out on Volkswagen cars

  1. Stone Impact Test to check paint and body strength.
  2. Destruction Tests to ensure ultimate endurance & quality.
  3. Intense checks for almost 7 hours on each car.
  4. Test on special track.

Exports from Pune Plant

‘German Engineering, Made in India by Volkswagen’ is in great demand worldwide. Currently, Volkswagen India exports the Polo and Vento, in right-hand as well as left-hand drive versions, to over 32 countries across three continents – Asia, Africa and North America.

Commencement of export – 2011 in South Africa

2012 in Middle East countries with LHD

2013 in Mexican Market with Indian Vento

2013 in Malaysia with component of Polo and Vento

CEVians really enjoyed the manufacturing process of POLO and its elder brother Vento and the iconic distinct cousin Beetle.

CEV - Handout