Thoughts Occasioned By An Electric Car

The cute Hyundai i10, the second-highest selling small car in India, is going electric. The petrol version of this car is currently manufactured at Hyundai’s Chennai plant for both the Indian as well as the world market. The electric version will be produced next year, initially for the Korean market, where – and this is the interesting part – the government has tax incentives in place for electric cars.

Frankly, I’ll always drive petrol. And I am against official policies that promote anything as “socially desirable.” Even the electric car will need electric charge – and some power plant somewhere will be burning coal to produce that electricity. I have also written in favour of a Indo-USSA “clunker deal”: allow our poor people to automobilize fast by buying every American gas-guzzling clunker for peanuts.

My argument is that our poor people must have cars today, so they produce more wealth for themselves today, in order to hand over more wealth to future generations – who will only then be able to face environmental challenges adequately. If we remain poor today, we remain poor tomorrow.

It is also true that electric cars are getting better every day. There are already many cars with hybrid engines being sold commercially. All cars are becoming more fuel-efficient. If we begin automobilizing our masses in full earnest now – through a clunker deal with the whole world – I am confident that these very people will buy brand new fuel-efficient cars someday soon, and their children will buy the most advanced cars in their own time.

But getting back to the i10: I would much prefer electric i10s darting about our streets than the pesky CNG-driven Bajaj auto-rickshaw – a vehicle that I do not consider “roadworthy” in any sense of the word.

My investigations in Delhi have revealed that a second-hand auto-rickshaw sells for over 200,000 rupees or US$5000. A modern car, second-hand, costs much less. Why are auto-rickshaws so expensive? The answer: They come with a “permit” to operate from the RTO. It is for the permit that the old auto-rickshaw is valuable. This permit system must go.

This is evidence that our The State’s dalliance with environmental causes is totally insincere. Environmental clearances are just another regulatory bottleneck for business – and a boon for baboodom. The Coastal Zone Regulation Act is also a tool for bureaucratic empowerment and for the dispossession of beachside property-owners. The State has also taken over forests – to protect tigers – but forest guards and forest-dwellers have divergent interests. There is endless conflict in our forests. And as far as automotive emissions are concerned, our nightmarish traffic, our pot-holed streets, and all these CNG auto-rickshaws, all combine to reduce efficiency. We waste fossil fuels in megatons.

This The State is also an enemy of the environment.

Recommended reading: My Four Wheels For All: The Case For The Rapid Automobilization Of India. A free download is available by clicking here.