Will fuel prices result in a shift to e-vehicles?

C Shivakumar @ Chennai:

Will the fuel price increase result in people shifting towards electric vehicles? The rise in fuel prices could be a blessing in disguise for electric vehicle manufacturers who feel it will result in people switching over to electric vehicles rather than traditional fuel based vehicles.

B. C. Datta, Vice President, Corporate Affairs, OLA Electric Mobility, told Express that the rise in fuel prices will see a shift as electric vehicles are more economical than a traditional vehicle.

"The cost of electric vehicle per kilometre is only 50 paise when compared to a traditional vehicle which could cost around Rs 3 per km, while taking into cost the present price of above Rs 100 and the vehicle presumed to be running 50km per litre of petrol and the maintenance costs," said Datta, whose company is likely to roll out the first electric vehicle from Bargur plant in Krishnagiri district in Tamil Nadu.

Nilay Chandra, Director - Marketing and Charging Infrastructure at Ather Energy told Express that oil price rise has definitely impacted the customer’s decision-making towards electric vehicles. “The value for money is an important factor in adapting electric vehicles. It was taking three to four years for any customer buying a two-wheeler to break even but now with the advent of e-vehicles, the customer can even within 18 to 24 months,” he says.

The resale value of the electric vehicle is more than the traditional petrol or diesel vehicle down four to five years, says Chandra. Citing an example of a 125cc Scooter and an electric vehicle, he says that on an average annually, a consumer of an e-vehicle who will be travelling approximately 8,000 to 10,000km will be saving Rs 16,000 to Rs 17,000 taking into account the current fuel prices.

While it is unlikely the fuel price will see any downward revision, the current subsidy of 40pc by Government of India for electric two-wheelers and the exemption from road tax and subsidy by the state government has generated a lot of interest among electric vehicle manufacturers, says Datta.

Tamil Nadu when compared to others has given huge incentives in promoting electric vehicles in its e-vehicle policy which was unveiled in 2019. These include 100% road tax exemption for all vehicles till December 30, 2022, waiver of registration charges or fees as per government of India's notification. The SGST will also be waived. It also announces waiver of e-permits and registration charges for autos and taxis.

 

But then whether the infrastructure is adequate to roll out electric vehicles. Datta says Ola plans to roll out one lakh charging stations across the country. "We are starting next month onwards. It will be implemented phase-wise with the initial target being the major cities after which it will be rolled out in tier-1 and tier-2 cities. It will be a two-year programme," he says.

"It is an ambitious and planned activity that would help consumers to charge wherever they are. We have been talking to petroleum companies. Most of the select petrol bunks will have charging stations.

However, Chandra prefers home-charging. “A consumer who uses the vehicle to go to office would be using it for a maximum 20 to 30km. So it would be ready if he charges the vehicle at home during the night,” he says. He also says Ather is planning to add 500 more charging stations across the country, he says.

Interestingly, the sale of e-vehicles is picking up after the lockdown. The sales in the last 15 days is equal to the volume of sales that we achieved in the month of February, says Chandra, whose companies have launched e-vehicles in Chennai.

“Chennai already contributes to 20pc (last 6 months) of Ather all India sales,” he says while highlighting how the city is adopting e-vehicles.

But then the issue towards the shift from traditional vehicle to e-vehicle is the cost. Admitting that cost is one of the factors, Chandra says that the price difference has come down from Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000 to Rs 25,000 recently due to government policies. He feels as the volumes of sales increase, the cost will further come down.

Explore setting up India hub at Antwerp Port

 CHENNAI:

Logistics service providers were urged to explore the idea of setting up “India hub at the Port of Antwerp” to enable Indian exporters make use of such a facility and emerge as reliable suppliers to their European customers.

This was suggested by Luc Arnouts, Vice President International Relations, Antwerp Port Authority during a virtual interaction titled “Translating the India-EU Trade enhancement and Connectivity plan into action” on Friday.

Arnouts highlighted how Antwerp Port can present itself as the nearshoring venue for centralized stocking and distribution point for Indian maritime cargo exported across Europe and the UK, against the background of its excellent connectivity to markets and ample warehousing at attractive rates.

The interaction was organised against the backdrop of the India-EU leaders meeting held on May 8, which was led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi  and  the  heads  of  EU  members  states  and  EU  representatives.

The  objective  behind  this  session  was  to share  insights  and  ideas  on strengthening trade between the India-EU corridor with the Port of Antwerp, Europe’s leading economic actor, having an active role to play, said president of Madras Chamber of Commerce Sriram Vats.

Elcot recruiting civil engineers for CMDA in the guise of employing techies on a temporary basis for last six years

C Shivakumar @ CHENNAI:
Civil engineers and town planners are being hired for Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority by Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) in the guise of employing network engineers, IT coordinators and technology coordinators.

While Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) has the powers to employ technical persons like Electrical engineers, Bachelor of Computer applications, B Sc computer science or diploma in ECE or EEE in state departments, it is recruiting civil engineers under the guise of recruiting for these technical positions.

What is more surprising is most of those hired are relatives of Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority employees. They are employed on nominal muster roll (NMR) and the whole process lacks transparency. The entire process does not have legal sanctity and official sources confirmed that the recruitment process is for temporary postings only. However, the employees have been continuing for the last six years when this kind of arrangement was introduced, say sources.

When Express contacted officials linked to ELCOT, the officials said that ELCOT has the power to recruit technical staff. However, when it was pointed out that the posts are being filled with civil engineers, official sources vowed to investigate the matter.

While sources claimed that Elcot, whose duty is to purchase software, computer printer and maintenance of software, can recruit people for IT cell. But then when it recruits civil engineers for other departments then there is something fishy.

Instead of recruiting the persons directly, Elcot officials go by the bio-data sent in by the administration wing of CMDA. These bio-datas belong to relatives or aides of employees. It is learnt that per year Rs one crore is being paid to Elcot and the manpower agencies. Advance of six months per employee is paid to Elcot. This also includes Central and State Goods Service Tax as service charges.

As per the norms of government, the recruitment to government posts is done on deputation, direct recruitment, by promotion, transfer of service or consolidated recruitment basis. As per the Nominal Muster Roll workers, they have to be paid wages per day and should not exceed the Public Works Department (PWD) schedule of rates published every year in June. But all these rules have been ignored.

What is more worrying is that after the recruitment of 131 posts, which had sparked a controversy after appointment orders were issued a day before the model code of conduct, Elcot is continuing recruitment for non-technical posts under the guise of office assistant and data entry operator. Association of Professional Town Planners (APTP) president K M Sadanandh has termed the entire process as illegal and demanded a probe by a high level committee. It is a well established fact that CMDA requires manpower. They have been blaming the shortage of manpower since the last 10 years, including when the Moulivakkam building collapse happened, says Sadanandh.

CMDA sources claim that for an ordinary post Rs 26,000 salary is fixed. But the contract employee gets only Rs 16,000. Nearly Rs 10,000 is lost to the exchequer. “They could have gone in for recruitment directly rather than going through the backdoor,” said sources.Interestingly, many of the contract workers are continuing for more than four years. “This violates the reservation policy of the government also,” say sources.

Now with backdoor recruitment on contract basis by paying hefty sums to Elcot and Information technology firms, CMDA is again found bending the rules and spending a huge sum of exchequer on employment which lacks transparency, says Sadanand.

Chennai ranks top in warehousing leasing among eight cities

CHENNAI:
Chennai ranks top among the eight real estate markets when it comes to warehousing leasing for the financial year 2021. According to a Knight Frank report, the city clocked 3.5 million square feet of warehousing leasing activity this financial year and is the only city among the eight markets to record positive growth.

The study by Knight Frank states that the city recorded 4pc year on year growth in warehouse space absorption despite the pandemic exigencies. Within the city, the highest leasing activity was concentrated in the Sriperumbudur-Oragadam cluster while the primary demand driver was the 3PL category/ Land rates have appreciated across micro markets while rentals have remained more or less stable across the city during the last year, the report stated.

The other seven markets include Mumbai, National Capital Region, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Pune and Ahmedabad.

"In terms of the leasing activity from the aspect of the industry, 3PL players were the primary driver with a share of 33pc in the total warehousing transactions pie in financial year 2021. Other Sectors (which include all manufacturing companies excluding FMCG and FMCD) stood second with a 32pc demand share followed by the FMCD category at 20pc and the e-commerce sector at 11pc," the Knight Frank report said.

The major warehousing locations are Sriperumbudur – Oragadam cluster, which include Irrungattukottai, Sriperumbudur, Oragadam and other locations on the in-roads branching from Sriperumbudur, Mannur – Thiruvallur Belt, which includes Mevalurkuppam, Mappedu, Mannur, Pollivakkam and Thiruvallur, and NH 16 / GNT Road – Periyapalayam cluster (North Chennai) which includes Periyapalayam Road, Thatchoor, Gummudipoondi and NH 16 / GNT Road – Redhills Belt which ncludes Madhavaram, Manali, Red Hills, Puzhal, Karanodai, Alamathi and Poochettipedu besides GST Road - Maraimalai Nagar cluster.

The report states that the demand continued to remain concentrated in the Sriperumbudur – Oragadam cluster which accounted for 57pc of the total transactions. Besides its manufacturing base, this cluster also witnessed increased demand from e-commerce and 3PL players in Financial year 2021. The demand share of the GST Road – Maraimalai Nagar cluster jumped from 7pc in financial year 2020 to 13pc in financial year 2021 on account of one large transaction of 0.03 mn sq m (0.3 mn sq ft).

Srinivas Anikipatti, Senior Director - Tamil Nadu and Kerala at Knight Frank India says, “Despite the disruption in economic operability by the pandemic, Chennai’s growth in transaction levels demonstrate the strong warehousing asset base in the city. Automobile, textile and manufacturing for heavy industries continue to be the driver industries for city’s industrial and warehousing demand. E-commerce and retail players have been a recent addition to this list of warehousing demand drivers in Chennai.”

Will TN go in for hydrogen powered buses on pilot basis?

 

C Shivakumar @CHENNAI:

Will Hydrogen powered buses be introduced in Metropolitan Transport Corporation? The state government is reviewing a proposal for introducing a pilot project in MTC which will help decarbonise and reduce green house gas emission, according to state transport department official.

While the previous government has planned to constitute a technical committee to give expertise for deployment of the pilot project from the pre-implementation, implementation, operation and completion stage of the demonstration just before elections, it is learnt the present government is reviewing the proposal.

According to information available with Express, then secretary C Samayamoorthy has written to state transport commissioner, Tangedco chairman, CMDA member  Secretary, state pollution control board, Greater Chennai Commissioner and other organisations like Indian Oil Corporation to depute an expert as a member of technical committee for Hydrogen Mobility project in public transport.

This also comes in the wake of the state transport department procuring 12,000 diesel buses complying to Bharat Stage VI norms after signing an agreement with German bank KfW during the previous regime. The state will also be introducing 500 electric buses and infrastructure will be ready in the next three months, a state transport department official said. It is also under FAME-2 scheme, tn was sanctioned 500 more buses. The state government went for tender. But due to Covid-19, it did not happen.

Sivasubramaniam Jayaraman, manager -Transport system , ITDP –India says that the guideline by MoHUA suggests 60 buses for every lakh population. Considering this, Chennai needs an additional 3100 buses to achieve the minimum service level benchmark.

“With the dawn of cleaner fuel technology, bus fleet augmentation should also target minimizing the carbon footprint. As per TN Electric Vehicle policy 2020 mentions STU’s will replace 5pc of their buses to electric every year (around 1000 EV buses). Government should consider inducting these cleaner vehicle technologies and gradually aim to phase out the diesel buses,” he says.

Even the Centre has been advocating the use cleaner technology vehicles and use of hydrogen as fuel as it would result in zero vehicular emissions. The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget this year announced the National Hydrogen Mission, which includes creating infrastructure to tap hydrogen in niche applications including the transport sector. And goal oriented research and development facilitative policy.  

Dr Abha Bharti, Chief Scientist and Global Head of Fuel Cells, Capstone Energy says Hydrogen is the alternate energy to reduce emissions. The fuel cell doesn’t have any emission and can compete with conventional diesel and petrol fuel.

Bharti, who did her post doctoral fellowship with Centre for Fuel Cell Technology, International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials, IIT Madras Research Park says that few start-ups in IIT Park are working on different aspects of fuel cells.

Interestingly, the Hydrogen fuel scenario in fuel cell is catching up in India. National Thermal Power Corporation has floated a tender for deploying hydrogen fuel cell buses in Delhi and Leh. Similarly, Tata has bagged an order for 15 hydrogen-based fuel cell buses from the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL). Even car makers like Nissan, BMW, Hyundai are tapping hydrogen fuel.

Bharti says even the Indian Railways are working on incorporation of fuel cell technology in locomotive. But how does hydrogen replace the fuel? Bharti says a fuel cell is a device that generates electrical power through a chemical reaction by converting a fuel (hydrogen) into electricity. Hydrogen has a high energy density as compared to other fuels and produces more energy in lesser weight due to which it can prove to be a viable option for heavy vehicles covering long routes in future.

The refueling time is similar to vehicles running on conventional also less fuels and significantly lower as compared to charging an electric vehicle.

However, to make it a success, there are challenges. The fuel cell buses are expensive to manufacture due to the high cost of catalysts (platinum).The reliability is compromised due to lack of infrastructure to support the production and distribution of hydrogen.

A lot of the currently available fuel cell technology is in the prototype stage and not yet validated. Hydrogen is expensive to produce and not widely available in India, according to experts.

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Factfile:

Cost of fuel

Hydrogen fuel cell bus cost per km (CPK): Rs 18.2

Battery electric buses (CPK): Rs 13.8

CNG fuel (CPK): Rs 21.9

Diesel buses: Rs 29.6

 

Approximate range:

Hydrogen fuel cell bus: 434km with 34.5kg of hydrogen

Battery electric buses: 230km with 300kwh battery

CNG fuel: 300 to 500km with 100kg CNG

Diesel buses: 750km with 300litre diesel

(Source: ITDP)