Delhi's driving bans and vehicle scrappage policies are under fire for being unfair. One alternative is to convert conventional vehicles to run off electricity.
00:01Is this the missing piece in India's journey towards e-mobility?
00:05This compact module is being installed in old diesel trucks near Delhi.
00:10A process called retrofitting transforms them into clean electric vehicles fit for the future.
00:18When you want to go towards electric vehicles, look at an existing truck.
00:24The chassis, the cabin, the body can all be reused.
00:27The only thing that is really causing the pollution problem is this engine, right?
00:31So what we do is we remove these polluting components.
00:34We install a brand new electric powertrain and drivetrain
00:37and convert an ICE truck into a smart zero emissions truck.
00:42But how to scale it up?
00:44It is estimated that more than 15 million vehicles throng the streets of the Indian capital Delhi.
00:51Very few are electric.
00:53Every winter, the city struggles with dangerous air pollution levels.
00:58Vehicles account for almost half of the particulate matter pollution and are major CO2 emitters too.
01:05Delhi could become a model for mega cities in other emerging economies,
01:10also striving to slash greenhouse gas emissions.
01:13If we are thinking about a zero economy and obviously automobile sector is at the center of this transformation.
01:20Instead of buying new vehicle, if I can retrofit and upgrade my existing vehicle, environmentally speaking, it is superior.
01:29But instead of massively investing in the conversion of old vehicles, city authorities are responding with contingency plans.
01:38If air pollution soars, drivers have to take older diesel and petrol vehicles off the roads immediately.
01:45Kravinder Singh Rathor, who drives for a living, is among those affected.
01:49His car has not been paid off yet.
01:51Driving bans cost him dearly.
01:54This is a 2019 model and the monthly instalment costs 42,000 rupees.
01:59That's roughly 500 euros.
02:02Daily, that means about 1,500 rupees, about 17 euros.
02:07Then there is rent, the children's school fees and their other expenses.
02:12Altogether, it translates into daily shortfall of around 30 euros.
02:17And radical measures such as scrapping diesel and petrol cars or banning them from the roads according to their age are unfair and uneconomical,
02:25says Chandra Bhushan, head of the environmental NGO, Eye Forest.
02:29The criteria for scrappage should be based on fitness,
02:35whether the vehicle is safe to run or not, on pollution parameter,
02:39whether it is meeting the pollution parameter or not.
02:42Fewer than 8% of Delhi's vehicles are electric, though the goal is 30% by 2030.
02:49Progress is slow despite new policies and charging stations.
02:54As far as potential is concerned, I think these schemes are there.
03:00The cities are trying to build infrastructure, but still this electrification is, the rate is not changing that much.
03:08So I think it's a time to take a pause, to do the assessment, understand what are the challenges.
03:14And should we really, you know, put so much effort into this or we should just opt for low carbon mobility options which are walk, bus and cycle.
03:24And the stakes are high. Heavy commercial vehicles are major polluters.
03:30India has millions of trucks and buses responsible for roughly 40% of its transport related CO2 emissions.
03:39Retrofitting could help. At IX Energy in Delhi, vehicles are being converted to run cleaner.
03:46They claim the process can add up to seven years to a vehicle's life.
03:55Diesel engines need more maintenance once they are five or six years old.
04:00You save those maintenance costs if you go electric.
04:03The chassis of city vehicles are still in good shape.
04:07If you add an electric powertrain, your costs drop from 12 rupees per kilometer to 4 per kilometer.
04:14The company has developed its own powertrain unit and software which has been certified by the government.
04:21With a 15% team, conversion takes around two weeks.
04:25And the result is around 40% cheaper than buying a new electric truck.
04:37Delhi wants some 3% of older vehicles to have been converted by March 2026.
04:42However, a lack of guidelines, patchy standards and low government incentives are slowing the process down.
04:50There are currently only some 27 certified retrofitters for two, three and four-wheel vehicles India-wide.
04:58Anshuthiwan, founder and CEO of IX Energy, says retrofitting receives far fewer subsidies than buying a new electric vehicle and that makes it harder to convince people to make the switch.
05:10If government wants electrification at a mass scale, then they need to promote retrofits.
05:16And for that to happen, they need to simplify the rules for certification and the testing agencies.
05:22Indian consumer goods manufacturer Dabur is already using electric trucks converted by IX Energy.
05:28These vehicles have been part of its delivery fleet since 2020 and currently supply 26 different warehouses.
05:38We were actually experimenting with different technologies, EV, CNG etc.
05:44And on the way, we also got to know about the retrofit vehicles.
05:48We found this technology to be more sustainable than probably the EVs also.
05:52because these are old vehicles which we are trying to recycle by retrofit.
05:57So that's how we thought that it will be worth to experiment with this technology also.
06:02India's public electric charging infrastructure is still lagging behind.
06:06There is currently only one public station per 235 electric cars.
06:12For professional drivers like Ravinder Singh, Rathor, that is the biggest obstacle to switching to electric.
06:19The authorities have not been able to cope with supplying compressed natural gas.
06:24There are still queues at the CNG pumps.
06:27It's not that you go, fill up and leave.
06:30So if you are promoting EV so much, then at least provide enough charging stations.
06:35India's capital Delhi has a long way to go in the transition to sustainable mobility.
06:42Retrofitting could play a key role by transporting existing vehicles into a new low emission future.
06:49And that approach could inspire mega cities worldwide.
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