SAYANTAN BERA

The glitz and glamour at the biggest auto show in Delhi drew the highest number of footfalls ever. The show unveiled dreams and many of them had a green wrap this time. Amid the slew of small cars at the expo, held on January 5-11, was a lineup of electric and hybrid vehicles.

From Toyota to Honda and Hyundai to Suzuki, Tata Motors and General Motors had on display electric models, and electric-petrol hybrids. Reva though did not have a stall at the expo. The car manufacturer, in Bengaluru, has deployed 3,000 electric cars on the road worldwide.

New models saw electrifying launches. Delhi chief minister Sheila Dixit was on the driver’s seat when the two-seater Twizy ZE from Renault and GM’s e-spark rolled out. Bollywood added the extra zing as Shah Rukh Khan, brand ambassador for Hyundai, posed by electric and hybrid mascots. And people were dazed (see box: What is an e-vehicle?).

Suddenly, e-vehicles have trudged up the popularity chart and become part of the business model of major automakers—both local and global.

Some of them have finally looked beyond the conventional internal combustion engines and to a completely new genre of technology.

This needs watching.

The biggest explosion is expected in the two-wheeler segment. Around 1,30,000 electric two wheelers were sold in 2007-08.

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Bulk of these are low-powered and low-speed electric two wheelers. Another 110,000 electric two wheelers were sold last year. Mukesh Bhandari, chairperson and managing director of Electrotherm (India) Ltd, which makes the YObyke, expects sales to pick up (see box: On a high).

China recorded the maximum sales of electric two wheelers.

Twenty eight million units were sold last year. An adb study found that 96 per cent of world’s e-bikes are concentrated in China. The e-bike market is on a high in Japan, and Europe as well.


Hybrids: half way electrified

Globally though, hybrids might enter markets sooner and more easily than e-vehicles because hybrids do not require new refuelling infrastructure.

Toyota was the first company to introduce hybrid vehicles in 1997. Its hybrid Prius drew crowds at the expo. The third generation of Prius was recently launched in India.

Hybrid vehicles use both petrol and electric propulsion systems. The technology is an offshoot of the electric vehicle experiment. In such vehicles, the electric motor provides a boost during starting and is recharged during vehicle operations. This cuts emissions significantly and improves fuel economy. Compared to 2007 sales, the global market of hybrid vehicles could more than treble in five years, said the Internatio-nal Energy Agency report 2008 Outlook for hybrid and electric vehicles.

Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors have shown interest in developing hybrids. Hybrids, however, increase cost, weight and complexity. Experts say hybridization makes sense in bigger vehicles due to fuel economy benefits.

The bus industry too has innovated to make hybrid cng (compressed natural gas) buses. Ashok Leyland put on display Hybus—India’s first plug-in cng hybrid bus. It offers fuel savings of 20-30 per cent. Three of these buses are set for use at the Commonwealth Games scheduled in October this year. Tata Motors showcased Starbus—the 35-seater cng-electric low-floor hybrid vehicle—at the auto expo.