The noise about diesel pollution has been riveting the automotive industry in India. It has also revealed painfully slow progress to move towards full hybrid vehicles. Hybrids are now setting the pace across the world, not least on the endurance races of the world where manufacturers, including Audi and Porsche, are winning races such as the prestigious 24 Hours of le Mans. So why aren’t hybrids being promoted in IndiaIJ KUSHAN MITRA finds out
In 2012 at the prestigious 24 Hours of le Mans, the world’s most demanding endurance race, something strange happened. It was not the first time that the German carmaker Audi had won the race, indeed they had won 11 of the previous 13 runnings of this race. But this was the first time that two hybrid cars had crossed the finish line in such a famous race to take the top two positions.
The R18 e-tron was the culmination of many years of work, not just of the aerodynamicists and engine developers but also incredible electrical engineering that allowed a battery pack and diesel engine to work together towards victory. It may not sound like a traditional racecar, missing the thunderous noise of a Chevrolet Corvette or the high-pitched scream of high-revving Ferrari, the R18 almost whooshes by, the main noise on the car being it slicing through the air, yet one cannot argue with success. Even as the Audi R18 lost at le Mans last year, it lost to a Porsche 919, which was also a hybrid.
The racetrack is the crucible of major automotive development. Everything from the rear-view mirror to the synchromesh gearbox that many of us take for standard today stem from developments made on the racetrack. The hybrid technologies that were developed for the racetrack are getting more and more advanced. And Audi, which developed the ‘e-tron’ technology for the hybrid-electric R18, is now making its way into products such as the Audi A3, the carmaker’s entry-level sedan. Porsche, Ferrari and Mclaren have all made their latest supercars into hybrid monsters.
Today, hybrid technology is becoming increasingly standard, and now there is even an all-electric racing series, the FIA Formula E championships, in its second season. Even in Formula 1, cars regenerate energy lost both in braking and in heat. A lot of Mercedes-Benz F1 success in the past three seasons is derived from their expertise in such systems.
However, in India the debate about the virtues of the internal combustion engine has taken centre stage as the pollution issue comes to the fore. Obsessed with producing low-cost cars and (until recently) Governments unwilling to promote alternative energy systems as well as a systematic bias towards diesel, which was heavily subsidised, have left the Indian auto industry in a sort of strange situation.
Across the rest of the world, in America in particular, where the cult of the car remains strong, electric vehicles from carmakers such as Tesla have become increasingly popular. Other carmakers, like Toyota, have made cars such as the Prius — the poster-car for hybrid vehicles — a best-seller. In Europe, cities are toying with the concept of shared electric cars made by companies such as Smart. Even in China now there is a move to electric and hybrid cars.
In India unfortunately, despite incentives by the Government and the development work undertaken by manufacturers such as Mahindra, the adoption rate of electrics and hybrids is minimal. Indeed, cars with rudimentary hybrid systems, ‘partial hybrids’ are being sold by Maruti but these are not vehicles that have additional battery systems. Such cars are, however, going to become standard as stricter Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) norms kick in for carmakers.
There is the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid and) Electric vehicles in India scheme (FAME India) that was launched by the Heavy Industries Ministry in 2014. This incentivises the manufacture of such vehicles. Despite the fanfare and quite generous incentives — Rs1.24 lakh for the Reva E2O and Rs1.38 lakh for the E-Verito — sales have not shot up. The Reva E2O slashed prices after the scheme was launched and despite the car having no VAT in Delhi as well as a relaxation of road tax and registration, it is still very expensive at Rs4.9 lakh for what is essentially a micro-car.
Mahindra went one step further this past week and launched a battery-powered version of their Verito sedan. Arvind Matthews, of Mahindra Electric, pointed out that every day over 800,000 vehicles go on to Indian roads for ‘employee transportation’ and these vehicles use a combined 3.2 billion litres of fuel every year, “for a nation with a huge fuel bill, this is a travesty”.
In Bangalore, Mahindra Electric has sold 140 of its E2O cars to ‘lithium’, an electric cab company, which in conjunction with 23 fast-charging stations, the cabs are covering an average of 220 kilometres a day. “Any distance over 100 kilometres, an electric vehicle blows an internal combustion engine out of the water,” Matthew adds. The new e-Verito has a running cost of Rs1.15/km (assuming power is Rs7 a unit) and has been launched in Delhi, where the Arvind Kejriwal-led Government has committed to build 140 fast-charging stations, where a car can get 80 per cent of charging in under two hours.
However, the high price of electric cars, even with the FAME scheme, impacts the e-Verito as well, with the basic version of the car selling for a steep Rs9.5 lakh even with Central Government incentives more than double the price of a regular Verito sedan.
Even as several State Governments, notably Delhi, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, have drastically reduced VAT and Road Tax on electric cars or removed them altogether, the high upfront cost of an electric car might scare away many buyers. However, Pravin Shah, President, Mahindra Automotive, believes that with the Delhi Government incentivising electric cars and building fast-charging stations, such vehicles could become very popular with environmentally conscious commuters as well as taxi companies.
Mahindra has one advantage that many other electric car manufacturers do not. As a participant in the Formula E championship, it is able to gain insights into battery and motor technology that is being proven on the racetrack. The Formula E championship might lack the noise and the speeds of Formula 1, but it is becoming increasingly popular and the lower carbon footprint of the series is allowing races to take place in city-centre racetracks.
The growing popularity of Formula E has forced Formula 1 to become more friendly, while F1 cars are not technically full-hybrids like the Audi R18, they are increasingly moving in that direction with battery power filling playing a bigger role in the car’s performance with 140 horsepower out of the total of 800+ horsepower coming from the battery pack.
This is why carmakers in the West have decided that the mass market will be addressed by hybrid cars. The market for electric cars in 2015 crossed 287,000 of which 40 per cent came from China, yet hybrid car sales in the United States alone exceeded half a million in 2015. This is because while hybrid cars can become fully electric for shorter distances, the petrol or diesel engines can be used as generators to recharge the engine and boost performance, and when the battery runs dry, hybrid cars can always become regular cars.
But carmakers are seeing the trend; Audi is now seriously contemplating the introduction of their road-going ‘e-tron’ technology as the Supreme Court sticks to its guns with the ban on high-capacity diesel cars in Delhi. Audi India’s Joe King noted that the FAME scheme should also incentivise the ‘adoption’ part so manufacturers can seed the market with cars brought in from overseas.
King also pointed out that hybrids and electric vehicles avoided schemes like the odd-even programme that impacted cars in Delhi. “We feel that short-term decisions lead to increased uncertainty and ambiguity for the future, not just for manufacturers but also for dealers and customers. As manufacturers, we need clarity on policy direction so that we can amend our strategy in line with the customer demand. The need of the hour is a multi-pronged 360 degree cohesive approach, which looks at the entire environmental issue holistically, without affecting the business environment.”
Carmakers in India are basically asking for more incentives to promote electric and hybrid vehicle usage. The schemes by the Government are a start but in a cost-conscious country like India such cars cannot have the massive premiums they have right now because they will then be stuck with a small sliver of users. Given the high levels of taxation on motor vehicles, the Government has a lot of wiggle room over here and should promote such vehicles. And while the National Green Tribunal and the Supreme Court want to ban big diesel engines, they should look at the huge advancements made in hybrids and electrics and question the high taxation levels on such cleaner cars.
Cars are still an aspiration for millions of middle-class Indians, and unlike a city-state like Singapore, India cannot tax that aspiration heavily. Also with patchy public transport infrastructure, it will be a decade before most city commuters in cities like Delhi can ditch cars altogether. However, with an improving electricity grid and the focus on electric and hybrid mobility, India can not only reduce its dependence on imported fuel but also reduce air pollution. And to convince people of the impact of hybrid and electric vehicles, it may not be a bad idea to promote a Formula E or an endurance race of hybrids, such as the Audi R18, here.