siliconindia | | November 20188The Key PointThe Government of India is decisively moving towards large-scale introduction of electric mobility in the coun-try, to reduce green house gases & emission, the oil import bill, as well as to kickstart manufacturing. India has a sub-stantial market and manufacturing base for conventional vehicles. However, except for the introduction of some three-wheeler auto rickshaws, the penetration of EVs in the Indian market is not significant. India lags behind in being competitive in value-for-money propositions and its lack of indigenous technology base for key xEV (acronym for all variants of EVs like HEVs, BEVs, PHEVs and so on) subsystems. Across the world, vehicles are being launched, however, these are yet to be found on the Indian roads because the customer expectations and technology chal-lenges for India's road transportation system are unique & stiff. This article looks at these issues and argues that, to quickly move-up the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of Indian EV technologies; the key is to launch vigorous indigenous R&D.Our Powertrain Needs: Sasta, Sundar & TikauThe two major deterrents of large-scale adoption of xEVs in India are their higher price than comparable ICE vehi-cles and the absence of ubiquitous charging infrastructure. The second factor is being addressed by some of the energy PSUs, among others who are making plans to setup charg-ing stations across the country. There is not too much of a technology challenge and, if demand comes-up, it is a mat-ter of time before these would come-up too. However, seri-ous technology challenge exists in improving the price-per-formance ratio of xEVs to the point that the Indian market needs. Below we discuss briefly the technology challenges for the three main subsystems that constitute the major part of an xEV powertrain, apart from the Engine, which exists for HEVs.BatteryThe three major technology components of a Li-Ion auto-motive battery are the battery cells, the battery pack, includ-ing cooling and the Battery Management System (BMS) for charge and temperature. Worldwide, there is intense on-going R&D effort in improving battery system parameters like energy and power density, life, safety and cost. While such issues also need to be investigated by India, there are typical R&D challenges, specifically for batteries in India that need quick focus, such as (1) Development of India cells for high temperature un-cooled operations in Indian 2W/3W EVs. (2) Battery pack design with thermal & hu-midity management, high current busbars with dissimilar metal welded joints, cell level maintainability and so on. By Siddhartha Mukhopadhyay, Professor - Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, KharagpurIIT Kharagpur is a top-notch engineering institution established by the Government of India which offers all the major engineering, science, humanities and many other disciplines.IN MY OPINIONINDIA'S RIGHT TO WIN THE RACE OF ELECTRIC MOBILITY: R&D IS THE KEYSiddhartha Mukhopadhyay
< Page 7 | Page 9 >