00:00Is this the missing piece in India's journey towards e-mobility?
00:04This compact module is being installed in old diesel trucks near Delhi.
00:09A process called retrofitting transforms them into clean electric vehicles fit for the future.
00:17When you want to go towards electric vehicles, look at an existing truck.
00:23The chassis, the cabin, the body can all be reused.
00:26The only thing that is really causing the pollution problem is this engine, right?
00:30So what we do is we remove these polluting components,
00:33we 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's estimated that more than 15 million vehicles throng the streets of the Indian capital Delhi.
00:50And very few are electric.
00:54Every winter, the city struggles with dangerous air pollution levels.
00:59Vehicles account for almost half of the particulate matter pollution and are major CO2 emitters too.
01:05Delhi could become a model for megacities in other emerging economies also striving to slash greenhouse gas emissions.
01:12If we are thinking about a zero economy, and obviously the automobile sector is at the center of this transformation.
01:19Instead of buying new vehicles, 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.
01:36If air pollution soars, drivers have to take older diesel and gasoline vehicles off the roads immediately.
01:44Ravinder Singh Rattor, who drives for a living, is among those affected.
01:48His car has not been paid off yet. Driving bans cost him daily.
01:53This is a 2019 model, and the monthly installment costs 42,000 rupees. That's roughly 500 euros.
02:00Daily, that means about 1,500 rupees, about 17 euros. Then there is rent, the children's school fees, and their
02:10other expenses.
02:11All together, it translates into daily shortfall of around 30 euros.
02:16And radical measures such as scrapping diesel and gasoline cars, or banning them from the roads according to their age,
02:22are unfair and uneconomical, says Chandra Bhushan, head of the environmental NGO iForest.
02:28The criteria for scrappage should be based on fitness, whether the vehicle is safe to run or not, on pollution
02:37parameter, whether 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. Progress is slow
02:50despite new policies and charging stations.
02:53As far as potential is concerned, I think these schemes are there, cities are trying to build infrastructure, but still
03:03this electrification is, the rate is not changing that much.
03:07So I think it's a time to take a pause, to do the assessment, understand what are the challenges, and
03:14should we really, you know, put so much effort into this, or we should just opt for low carbon mobility
03:21options, which are walk, bus and cycle.
03:24And the stakes are high. Heavy commercial vehicles are major polluters. India has millions of trucks and buses, responsible for
03:33roughly 40% of its transport related CO2 emissions.
03:40Retrofitting could help. At IX Energy in Delhi, vehicles are being converted to run cleaner. The company claims the process
03:50can add up to seven years to a vehicle's life.
03:55Diesel engines need more maintenance once they are five or six years old. You save those maintenance costs if you
04:02go electric. The chassis of city vehicles are still in good shape.
04:06If you add an electric powertrain, your costs drop from 12 rupees per kilometer to four per kilometer.
04:15The company has developed its own powertrain unit and software, which has been certified by the authorities.
04:22With a 15-person team, conversion takes around two weeks. And the result is around 40% cheaper than buying
04:32a new electric truck.
04:36The government wants some 3% of older vehicles to have been converted by March 2026.
04:43However, patchy standards, a lack of guidelines and low government incentives are slowing the process down.
04:50Currently, there are fewer than 30 certified retrofitters for two-, three-, and four-wheel vehicles, India-wide.
04:58Anshu Diwan, founder and CEO of IX Energy, says retrofitting receives far fewer subsidies than buying a new electric vehicle.
05:06And that makes it harder to convince people to make the switch.
05:10If the government wants electrification at a mass scale, then they need to promote retrofits.
05:15And for that to happen, they need to simplify the rules for certification and the testing agencies.
05:22Indian consumer goods manufacturer, Dabuha, is already using electric trucks converted by IX Energy.
05:29These vehicles have been part of its delivery fleet since 2020 and currently supply 26 different warehouses.
05:37We were actually experimenting with different technologies, EVs, CNG, etc.
05:43And on the way we also got to know about the retrofit vehicles.
05:47We found this technology to be more sustainable than probably the EVs also.
05:51Because these are old vehicles which we are trying to recycle by retrofit.
05:56So that's how we thought that it will be worth to experiment with this technology also.
06:02India's electric charging infrastructure is still lagging behind.
06:06There's currently only one public station per 235 electric cars.
06:11For professional drivers like Ravinder Singh Rathur, that's the biggest obstacle to switching to electric.
06:19The authorities have not been able to cope with supplying compressed natural gas.
06:23There are still queues at the CNG pumps.
06:26It'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.
06:36India's capital Delhi still 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.
06:48And that approach could inspire megacities worldwide.
06:53And that approach to the development of the e-mail.
06:54And that's not right.
06:54The website is at theatrevej.
06:55So if you are using 2018, the first technology if you are using the EVs.
06:55At the same time, you're using the E-mail.
06:56So if you are watering.
06:56Where does this change there?
06:56So I will use E-mail.
06:56And you're going to provide a key role by assessing the energy with the Pricing exist.
06:56So basically it's a key role that I see that Pricing is not necessarily going to be a key role.
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