The Realm Of Electric Vehicles

Electric vehicles are no longer a distant dream. They are getting affordable and starting to make sense. Rahul Ghosh lists out the things to know while purchasing an electric vehicle

- Rahul Ghosh

A little over a decade ago, a Bengaluru-based company call Maini launched a small electric car called Reva. It was a little two-door car and not many people even fathomed that one day in the near future they will be buying an electric vehicle. The company was later bought by Mahindra and the e2o was launched. Once again it was a two-door small electric car which was priced rather high. Quite simply it did not do too well in the market.

Perceptions changed when a few years ago the Indian market saw an invasion of battery-electric two and three-wheelers. These were cheap to buy and came with little or no quality control. Underneath the vibrant colors hid flimsy plastic bodies and equally flimsy frames. Ride and handling were as dubious as to its electric motor. They were mainly powered by heavy lead-acid batteries which took ages to charge. But the Indian Janata lapped them up thanks to considerably lower running costs.

But when the Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari announced his grand electrification program, mainstream manufacturers had to delve into this territory. As a result, we now have electric scooters like the TVS iQube, Bajaj Chetak, and the fantastic Ather 450X. Not just two or three-wheelers, mainstream car manufacturers like Hyundai, Tata Motors, MG, and Mercedes-Benz also launched new-generation electric cars. Suddenly people started taking notice and sales started rising. But are electric vehicles ready to challenge their ICE-powered counterparts? Let’s find out.

ADVANTAGES OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES