Despite India having to import 86% of its crude oil, a new petrol engine motorcycle has been launched by TVS Motor.
It may not be as simple as it may appear. Most fuel serves transport, such as commercial vehicles and the popular commuter buses in cities (municipal & State transport).
Also, just as Royal Enfield has exports to Western nations for its mid-segment motorcycles – this new TVS Ronin may not solely be aimed at eating into the sales of Enfield in India’s market (world’s largest two-wheeler market).
TVS Ronin Features:
https://www.rushlane.com/tvs-ronin-225cc-launched-3-variants-20-ps-20-nm-120-kmph-top-speed-12441985.html
TVS owns the legendary British brand Norton motorcycles. They set up a Research (R&D) and Manufacturing unit in England itself with HQ of Norton set up in England. Norton is best associated with the legendary Isle of Man races.
The boss of Jaguar-LandRover, Sir Ralf Speth, left that role and as chosen by TVS, was appointed Chairman of the new Norton motorcycle company.
TVS is the same company that manufactures the BMW 310 motorcycles in India exclusively for BMW under the German brand. TVS facility is gradually emerging as one of the largest production bases for the BMW bikes and accounts for around 20% of bikes produced by BMW globally. 100,000th unit of BMW Motorrad’s 310cc series rolled out from TVS in under 5 years.
Other References:
BMW G310 production milestone (click here)
Major automotive brands may not entirely believe all-electric will be a reality in a couple of years as demanded as an “Emergency” of Climate mandates.
This week, CTO of India’s Tata Motors (of MNC Tata Group) stated: “Net zero emission for CVs is at a nascent stage, says Rajendra Petkar.”
Refer at Economic Times link (click here)
Pressure is still there from the EU. All automotive companies in India meet the Emission rules in India which match with the European Emission norms. (‘Bharat Stage’ emission versions are the respective norms)
They are a few norm numbers behind so that all companies here, including foreign ones, don’t get stuck. It would set back the industry and employment dependent on manufacturing, selling and commuting on two & four wheelers. Not to mention large commercial vehicles for essential goods & passenger transport, including within the city.
Recent e.g. Polaris Indian Motorcycle was stranded for almost 2 years after 2020 as their models did not meet the emission norms set in India while Harley-Davidson was ready for each after comeback was announced with Hero MotoCorp in 2020.
(Emission regulations are announced a few years in advance for all scale / use of any vehicle… such as engine capacity, fuel-type, commuter, etc.)
Levels of Pollution from Vehicles – ICE and Electric ?
It is not really developing nations’ vehicles that consume most fuel on a monthly or annual basis. Sales figures also dependent on enforcing new Emission Norms matching the EU norms. Each State has autonomy (similar to USA) to decide their administration and efficiency apart from local infrastructure. These cannot be enforced pan-nation (unless you want the authoritative governments globally, about whom you may or may not be aware of).
Another good rule to measure is: How many miles / Kms is an average citizen going to travel / commute in a developing nation in a year ?
It is used to push EVs into cities (Tier-I, Tier-II & even Tier-III cities and some towns).
Apart from few options to generate electricity for charging any EVs, almost all cities in developing nations have residential apartments, not homes with drive-in, backyard, etc as in West. Maybe a celebrity has a large single home on their own plot or a luxury apartment that come with multiple vehicle exclusive parking for each owner.
You cannot electrify even in just 5 years, the major manufacturing units requiring ridiculous CAPEX to buy a single machine (Capital Expenditure).
For e.g. even if just buy one giant robotic machine that will churn out hundreds of EVs for an automotive company, can the brand depend on just one such huge machine to assure supply?
Will they only wait for online bookings before starting up the machine resting idle for a month? As done maybe for a customized luxury car such as, Bugatti, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Lamborghini or Maybach?
That’s just the 2-wheeler and 4-wheeler makers.
Reliable electric commercial vehicles for long-distance for shipping anything would still need better national infrastructure. Maybe still required to run on old railroads. Not all parts can be reached without some coal or its suitable affordable replacement fuel.
Entire train engines and its systems, their refueling stops, etc. cannot be overhauled as fast as 2050 is just an estimate based on above expenses expected.
Other changes?
Huge demand for experienced tech in not just IT but mechanics and civil engineering. The last two are last choices for incredible competent students entering National / International Admission Tests and then interviewing at their choice of Institutes / Universities.
Would you really want competent students to quit their ambition to pursue more challenging medical exams & Medical Degrees, and aim for high-paying any-all Engineering jobs after all of us enduring this pandemic? (not to mention any possible w-r)
Then there is financing such education as new Engineering Colleges cannot grow overnight with qualified Professors, etc. Hike in fees is inveitable with such a surge in demand. Only losers are entire families & future generations.
Gainers? Yup, Big Banks and spiraling quicksand of loans. Worse? Bad Loans and Bankruptcy of a Bank or NBFC (non-banking financial company).
Just a Global Village (don’t step out of it?)
We will just discount all domestic air-traffic, increasing global air-travel, global increased tourism industry and lifestyle changes due to new wealth-created for many for now.
Commercial shipping by sea is needed since not every nation can manufacture everything a citizen needs daily or at least monthly.
Emerging markets, despite risks of fires, are still more likely to adopt EVs. For e.g. the draining foreign exchange reserves of dollars while importing 86% of crude oil, is the big reason for huge subsidies & free vehicle registrations (the license plate) offered by many States in India.
Citizens who commute on two-wheelers & cars in cities for offices are more than willing to pay higher purchase price for buying the electric counterparts. They are not holidaying every weekend nor every month on their two-wheeler or car. Even while choosing to go on holidays or vacations, they use affordable (and safer) modes such as trains, private tourist buses.
As per investigations, most fires in electric scooters are due to customers not following manufacturer’s / seller’s guidelines on charging and plugging sockets. These may include: bad quality electricity connections or poor wiring at owner’s end or unsuitable voltage boards the consumer has used.
Yet, there were fires of parked electric scooters on roadsides. It seems, just like your tiny mobile phone, an electric vehicle parked on the road can heat up even while not plugged for charging.
Sealed cells will sometimes explode violently if safety vents are overwhelmed or nonfunctional. Look up ‘Thermal Runaway’.
Reason may be dual. Majority of rechargeable lithium batteries being made in only one particular large nation (surely you can guess?).
If they are poor quality ones or poorly designed – or if the Electric Vehicle itself is poorly designed / engineered – then they can explode in the heat common in most regions of India.
Another cause can be the quality / functionality of the software & chip-board systems and the regular servicing maintenance of all of the above to ensure optimal running.
These therefore, are required at a pace when basic needs for many need to be met instead of chasing rats, as demanded by global pollution pacts!
For a nation such as India already having suffered terrorist attacks regularly from you-know-who, this new nuisance is going to panic not just local residents but so many employers including international companies.
This entire nation’s economy would fiddle faster than a concert maestro. It will keep all of us wondering – “Is this new one a terrorist bombing or regular EV thing?”
How long will any citizen or State or Nation tolerate this until – wait for it – “Bans all EVs from all EV manufacturers” ?
What happened with Covid-mania in January-2022 ?
Novak Djokovic was granted a medical exemption to get around a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for the Australian Open. Yet, his Visa was revoked by the host nation.
So, there is a higher cost to pay for claims of saving on fuel expenses. Unless you prefer a singular ruler for more and more independent nations.
Action is already on against most Tech “Start-ups”:
“Centre sends show cause notices to Ola Electric, Okinawa, others on EV fires”
Reliable sources said that the EV makers have been given time till July end to respond in detail to the notices.”
Refer Economic Times News Source by clicking here.
So citizens in Western nations, such as the USA, where an ICE vehicle at every home seems common, are more likely to switch to electric in the deadlines announced by various nation/s or automotive companies.
Personal Views:
I believe, the more balanced progress in clearly improving Democracy in defined Constitutional Democratic nations is good for developed Western nations as well. The boom in entrepreneurship in India through new companies providing services & products for the local market is what is creating wealth. Not some outsourced work.
E.g.Many years ago, two employees of Amazon in USA quit their jobs there to start Flipkart.com in India. Amazon India only arrived in 2014 and when they became popular, Walmart USA bought out Flipkart.com to compete in India.
Uber was popular in India until Covid, when people decided to switch to buying affordable 2 or 4 wheelers for avoiding public transport. This created unexpected surge in demand from the industry who never saw that coming. It also more than doubled the prices of used vehicles.
Online purchase of groceries was never popular due to the popular local “Bazaar” system of buying them. Amazon India struggled to launch & supply their “Amazon Fresh” during Covid restrictions. Existing grocery websites and many food-delivery startups became huge – offering door-to-door delivery employment to adults who are less-qualified for office jobs.
This benefited many other American companies such as cloud hosting business, several known companies specializing in logistics software, databases, for secure payment gateway systems, CDN, software for email servers, server network SaaS, office employees to communicate remotely in strictly secure & confidential manner, holding video-conferencing for meetings, anti-virus & ransomware live software, and so much more.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Respective brands and companies mentioned are Trademarks, Brands and Owned by the respective companies and their owners. These are used here as case-study examples only. They are used primarily to refer cases and to news. No defamation or ill-intent is meant for any mentioned herein.
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