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Transportation

India's EV Paradox: Highest Subsidies, Lowest Uptake (indiadispatch.com) 132

India, the world's fifth-largest economy, is offering the heftiest electric vehicle subsidies globally -- yet has achieved just 2% market penetration so far. From a report: India's total EV subsidies amount to 40-50% of vehicle prices when accounting for GST (goods and services tax), road tax benefits, state subsidies and production-linked incentives. For larger vehicles like the Grand Vitara, the effective subsidy reaches 61%.

This dwarfs incentives in other major markets. China's subsidies represent about 10% of EV prices, while South Korea and Germany offer around 16-20%. The US provides roughly 26% through various federal and state programs.

Yet India's EV penetration significantly lags these markets. China has reached 24% penetration, South Korea 18%, Germany 20%, and the US 8%. India's 2% looks particularly stark in comparison.

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India's EV Paradox: Highest Subsidies, Lowest Uptake

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  • by olddoc ( 152678 ) on Tuesday December 03, 2024 @08:38AM (#64987543)
    Is it easy to add 10kW of power consumption to a home? Can you find 250kW DC fast chargers at many convenient locations when taking long trips? This might be the issue in India.
    • by SlashTex ( 10502574 ) on Tuesday December 03, 2024 @08:45AM (#64987559)
      Huge problem. Especially since the home goown EV players are small.

      High costs, poor electrical quality. Its a bit of a meme, but many still steal their electricity off of live wires, this does not help reliability.

      https://www.spglobal.com/mobil... [spglobal.com]
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      No and no. This is actually why EVs are a dead end in developing countries right now, and why a big question is what will happen there should large shipments of used ICEs that form majority of their fleets die out due to lack of sales of new ICEs in developed nations.

      Considering that EVs have largely become a "second car in a two car household" thing in most places first, and "only car in household" second even for developed nations, meaning it's primarily a car for people who own a house and can install a

      • China is building coal-fired power plants to charge EVs, is it better for your vehicles to be run on fossil fuels or coal?

        • Coal is a fossil fuel.
        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

          PRC isn't doing "NEV" (Chinese propaganda language that calls them "new energy vehicles") transition for some silly narrative reasons. They're doing it because they're preparing for a long term stand-off with the West over Taiwan. Part of that is maintaining state logistics in face of a likely blockade of oil shipments going from Middle East to PRC either around Indian subcontinent, or Straight of Malacca. Both are well outside current strike range of PLAN, so there's little they can do about it without goi

        • by Sique ( 173459 ) on Tuesday December 03, 2024 @11:02AM (#64987893) Homepage
          China does not. While China is indeed building coal fired plants, it adds even more renewables to the grid. China builds coal fired plants at a rate less than its economic growth and electric energy usage growth. That means, that each EV is powered by less and less coal generated electric power, because the share of coal-fired plants in electric power generation shrinks.
        • China is building coal-fired power plants to charge EVs, is it better for your vehicles to be run on fossil fuels or coal?

          https://www.forbes.com/sites/m... [forbes.com]

        • It moves the pollution to more easily controlled places, cutting the smog. Plus EVs can switch to other power sources as they become available, ICEs can't. So it actually makes sense for them.

        • > is it better for your vehicles to be run on fossil fuels or coal?

          Coal.

          Setting aside your incorrect assertion about what China is or is not building, and their actual energy mix, an EV's efficiency is so high that even if charged from a coal powerplant via a grid network the per-mile emissions are comparable to a Prius.

          When you consider China's actual energy mix, emissions are considerably lower.

          So yeah, "coal powered EV" beats just about any gasoline or diesel ICEV in terms of emissions.
          =Smidge=

        • by haruchai ( 17472 )

          China is building coal-fired power plants to charge EVs, is it better for your vehicles to be run on fossil fuels or coal?

          I'd like to see all coal plants shuttered but at least the ones being built in China are very modern ones.
          That's how they should have started instead of the 1000s of crap ones they built decades ago when they were ramping up their coal consumption by nearly an order of magnitude but better late than never & they've reportedly been shuttering the old nasty ones aggressively for the past decade

          https://www.americanprogress.o... [americanprogress.org]
          https://globalenergyprize.org/... [globalenergyprize.org]

        • by Cyberax ( 705495 )

          China is building coal-fired power plants to charge EVs, is it better for your vehicles to be run on fossil fuels or coal?

          China is _replacing_ coal power plants. Their coal consumption has peaked this year. Also, EVs are more CO2-efficient than ICE cars even when powered from coal power plants.

        • is it better for your vehicles to be run on fossil fuels or coal?

          Not a very good question, because China isn't building coal plants specifically for EVs and gas plants for all other uses. They're increasing their total energy production, using whatever works for them, so it's not like eliminating EVs will suddenly eliminate new coal plants.

          Keep in mind that the extraction and refining of petroleum, and the distribution of gas are all among the most energy consuming and polluting processes; their cost needs to be added to the pollution and energy cost of ICEs, on top of t

      • by haruchai ( 17472 )

        "This is actually why EVs are a dead end in developing countries right now,"
        Such countries should be building & improving their electrical infrastructure and looking at electrifying PUBLIC transit, not focusing on private ownership for now

        • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

          Actually such countries should be focusing on things completely unrelated to any of this babble, beyond ensuring that they can get enough access to spare parts. Article of mindless faith that "public transit", something that requires high level of orderliness from society to work is a proper solution for nations who's primary problem is excess disorder at every level of organisation... is so phenomenally idiotic that about the only thing I can do is provide you with this link:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?. [youtube.com]

          • by haruchai ( 17472 )

            Please go fuck yourself. Every country can do more than one thing at a time.
            And this "babble" is about ELECTRIFICATION.
            If you think that's a bad thing, let's see you live without it.
             

            • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

              This is more of the same "No bread? Eat cake. Here's how!" delusion. Coupled with white savior complex on top of it, thinking you know better than those lowly third worlders. Who almost universally arrange their personal automotive logistics around used ICEs and bikes.

              • by haruchai ( 17472 )

                "thinking you know better than those lowly third worlders"
                after all this time, why are still living in the third world?
                must be someone else's fault, amirite?

                "This is more of the same "No bread? Eat cake. Here's how!" delusion"
                Did you miss the part where massive subsidies isn't helping uptake?
                Then what exactly is the point?

                "almost universally arrange their personal automotive logistics around used ICEs and bikes"
                Delhi has some of the worst air quality in the world which makes it challenging to pedal one's bi

                • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

                  >after all this time, why are still living in the third world?
                  >must be someone else's fault, amirite?

                  Yes. Geography combined with divergent evolution. Africans have massive populations that still struggle with mentally modelling concept of future as something real and tangible, which leads to extreme difficulties in investing in long term futures. This is the "sell all the books in the library after white librarian leaves" problem that is so well documented in several books by people who would come ba

      • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        EVs in developing countries aren't really an issue. In fact, they can be a solution to a lot of issues.

        India's grid sucks. The power is bad and it's unreliable. But they are also in a relatively sunny location. EVs can provide a necessary bridge by heing what are basically large mobile batteries.

        Oil and ICE engines require far more infrastructure - you require an oil field to provide the crude, then all the transportation of such, then the refineries, then transportation of the product to the end user. This

        • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

          "No bread? Let them eat cake! Perfect solution for these reasons".

          These delusional posts that feature people who genuinely have not a faintest clue how developing countries function at all, and just project developed country baseline upon them is sad. This isn't the first one with this exact theme either.

      • If EV roll outs are to be serious (i.e. PRC where EVs are considered a national security issue due to geography of how oil gets there and interdiction paths by geostrategic competitors), you need to sink an absolute fortune into a functional charging network. And even PRC hasn't done quite enough on that front yet.

        If EV roll outs are to be serious, you better be thinking of ALL the other shit that requires oil other than the fucking EV.

        Yes. The EV too. Those tires they chew through hauling around another cars worth of battery aren’t exactly made of hemp and bullshit. Or the plastic dash in the car. Or the plastic tits in the driver. Figure out what you’re going to make plastic milk jugs and IV bags out of.yet? Hell, we’ll BURN more oil than ever to make the electricity to charge the “gr

        • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

          I'm probably one of about two people who remembers how fractional distillation of oil works and what are the limiting factors in it on this site. Unironically. Every time I remind people that the limiting factor is kerosene, and so it doesn't matter how much less gasoline we use in cars as long as planes have to fly, amount of oil consumed isn't going to change I get a lot of ignorant commenters screeching about how I must be wrong.

          This before going into the whole "fertilizer" discussion. Since genocidal id

          • Hmm... I remember reading that we've been using cracking techniques [essentialc...dustry.org] to increase the fraction of oil that is gasoline and diesel in the past, most articles make it seem like the gasoline fraction is the limiting factor for oil.

            Gasoline - 26.9M barrels/day in 2023. [oilprice.com] 9.82B barrels/year.
            Jet Fuel seems to be tracked separately than Kerosene, straight kerosene is a rounding error in comparison.
            But I found that in 2023 we used 99B gallons [statista.com] of the stuff. Slightly more in 2024, but I'm sticking to same year data wh

            • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

              >Jet Fuel seems to be tracked separately than Kerosene, straight kerosene is a rounding error in comparison.

              Jet fuel is made from kerosene, it's not an inherent distillate of oil like kerosene is. Just like gasolene is a natural distillate of oil, while gasoline that goes into cars is made from gasolene.

              Kerosene depending on specific type of oil being fractionally distilled is usually 4%-5% of total. Did you confuse "oil barrel and what it fractionates into" with "end product list"?

              • I didn't say that jet fuel isn't made from kerosene, I said that it is tracked separately. As in "global kerosene production" is a couple orders of magnitude less than "global jet fuel production" when I went looking.
                I know they're from the same spot on the distillation stack.

                Did you confuse "oil barrel and what it fractionates into" with "end product list"?

                No, notice how I listed both?

                The EIA even bothers to list jet fuel, but despite knowing full well kerosene is produced in country and sold as such, they don't bother splitting it out, unlike "jet fuel" and "gasoline".

                I think my point

                • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

                  >They can simply mess with the proportions they're refining such that as gasoline becomes less valuable because fewer cars and systems are using it, they produce more of what are now more valuable products.

                  This indicates that you did in fact make the mistake I outlined, even though you denied it earlier in your post. Because oil contains a very specific amount of each product of oil. That you fractionally distill from it. You can't just distill more kerosene from a specific oil blend than there is in it.

                  • This indicates that you did in fact make the mistake I outlined,

                    No, I actually didn't, because I'm operating off of more knowledge. Basically, refineries don't just fractionally distill.

                    They do other things like Cracking [wikipedia.org]. Fluid catalytic cracking [wikipedia.org] more specifically.

                    Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) is the conversion process used in petroleum refineries to convert the high-boiling point, high-molecular weight hydrocarbon fractions of petroleum (crude oils) into gasoline, alkene gases, and other petroleum products.[1][2][3] The cracking of petroleum hydrocarbons was originally done by thermal cracking, now virtually replaced by catalytic cracking, which yields greater volumes of high octane rating gasoline; and produces by-product gases, with more carbon-carbon double bonds (i.e. alkenes), that are of greater economic value than the gases produced by thermal cracking.

                    They also do stuff like Isomerisation, Reforming, Alkylation, Dealkylation, Disproportionation, and polymerization. [essentialc...dustry.org]

                    It's that amount, no more and no less.

                    Only until you bring out the catalysts and start getting fancy.

                    All you can do is fuck up the distillation and waste some.

                    US refineries [eia.gov] manage to take 42 gallons of crude oil and turn it into 45 gallons of refined product.

                    You can't get more without very complex and exceedingly expensive chemical processes (essentially making synthetic kerosene from another fractional distillation product or even completely another source).

                    I won't dispute complex, but

                    • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

                      This post is basically "this is how we do a little bit of [quote below]"

                      >You can't get more without very complex and exceedingly expensive chemical processes (essentially making synthetic kerosene from another fractional distillation product or even completely another source).

                      Yes we do because it's economical to do a little bit of it. Because refineries don't just do fractional distillation for further refinement. They produce actual end product too.

                      But you still can't get more product than there is. All

                    • But you still can't get more product than there is. All you can do is synthesize it from less used fractions.

                      And that's what I'm saying they're doing. Ergo, if gasoline use drops while kerosene/jet fuel use remains stable or even increases, what they do is stop synthesizing gasoline from less used fractions and start synthesizing more jet fuel.

                      This doesn't entirely solve the problem of what happens when gasoline use starts to actually decrease, but it delays them for at least a few years. We can extract a bit less oil, refine a bit less gasoline, and proportionally more other stuff.

                      After a point, we could enter

                    • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

                      > what they do is stop synthesizing gasoline from less used fractions and start synthesizing more jet fuel.

                      And this is where you run into costs issue. No one wants your golden fully synthetic fuel unless you're Germany in late 1944/early 1945. There's a little bit of sythethic production you can do that doesn't raise prices much.

                      And the rest is gold fuel. So expensive no one will buy it unless nothing else is available.

                      And that's why kerosene is the limiting fractional distillation product in oil, and re

                    • That's not my 'golden fully synthetic fuel', that your strawman's fuel.

                      Meanwhile I said that they can produce more jet fuel to a point.

                      And 'nobody will buy it unless nothing else is available' is standard. It could be one cent more expensive and it would still be avoided until they had no choice.

                      Gasoline is currently the limiter, not kerosene. That is what they're increasing via cracking and such, not kerosene.

                      It isn't let them eat cake, it is an informed opinion. At least at first, refineries can just a

                    • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

                      This is more of you not understanding relevant chemistry nor reality. We mostly generate kerosene from heaviest fractions as much as we can. You can see this in your own linked charts, where we get around 4% of kerosene, but around 9% of various variants of avgas when you count final products instead of distillates. The issue is that alkylation and hydrocracking+reformation only goes one way.

                      We have a massive excess of heaviest stuff right now. It's what we burn in maritime diesels and similar engines. It's

                    • This is more of you not understanding relevant chemistry nor reality.

                      That would be you actually. You're like a middle schooler trying to explain how something would fall using only gravity to an adult with a math degree who's taking air friction into account.
                      Hint: Try to lay off attacking me, and actually provide sources for what you're saying. I know I provided a bunch.

                      We have a massive excess of heaviest stuff right now.

                      Indeed. Part of that is things like oil tars and sands, which tend to produce very heavy crude. But that's what cracking is for.

                      Up the chain. And a lot of it, is easiest to do with the lightest distillation product as the end of the line. That's gasoline.

                      Actually, above gasoline you have Naphta, propane, natural gas, and such.
                      ke

                    • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

                      >And "easy" isn't really the issue - how expensive is it?

                      Is there a correlation between the two?

                      >As for using natural gas because it's cheaper, well, if they adjust processes so it produces less gasoline and more kerosene, with the consequence of more CH4, that means that even the CH4 can be sold, right?

                      No. Can't compete with free. Natgas is effectively free as an input in shale rich areas. This is what all the fighting about LNG and CNG terminals to ship it to Europe was about. Effectively free or ne

                    • At this point, I have to ask, what are you arguing against?

                      My only argument is that the refineries currently do things to increase gasoline production. If demand for gasoline drops relative to 'everything else', they can stop doing this.
                      If availability of something else like jet fuel becomes a concern, they can start doing the same sort of processes, just tuned differently, to produce more of it.
                      I acknowledge that this is not a magic wand, that the amount of fraction you can increase it by is limited, and

                    • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

                      >My only argument is that the refineries currently do things to increase gasoline production. If demand for gasoline drops relative to 'everything else', they can stop doing this.

                      Most of the increase is going into kerosene. By the numbers. We're getting more than double avgas out of oil than there's kerosene in it. Part of it is obviously additives needed to stabilize the fuel further, but most of it is synthesis.

                      Gasoline increases are tiny in comparison. By the numbers you yourself provided.

                      >Still, a

                    • You know that to me, that video applies to you?

                      1. AVGas is a gas, it isn't kerosene or jet fuel. It is gasoline. Used in ICE engines propeller craft.
                      2, the fraction that is kerosene in crude oil is smaller and not expanded nearly as much as gasoline.
                      3. What part of 'we can make plastics using modern organics' implies a shift to preindustrial life? I'm talking about stuff like making oils using thermal depolymerization, plastic from soy, etc... Thoroughly post-industrial highly technological methods.
                      T

                    • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

                      >AVGas is a gas, it isn't kerosene or jet fuel. It is gasoline. Used in ICE engines propeller craft.

                      Holy fuck, you actually got the joke?

                      >the fraction that is kerosene in crude oil is smaller and not expanded nearly as much as gasoline.

                      Only about 100%. Compared to something like 20 percentage points of a gasoline. While being more viable overall, being the lightest liquid fraction. Math? Nah, neverhöörd.

                      >What part of 'we can make plastics using modern organics' implies a shift to preindus

                    • Holy fuck, you actually got the joke?

                      It was supposed to be a joke? I mean, at that level I could take all your posts as jokes.

                      Every single one of them. Like modern medicines? Sorry, can't have them any more for every man, storage cost issues. Modern computers? Nope. Personal mobility? Nope. Food safety? Enjoy your "at least four times a year" severe food poisoning events for even the richest people.

                      *Spock Eyebrow*
                      Why would there be storage cost issues for medicine? Medicine is high value enough that switching to a bioplastic or even glass wouldn't break the bank.
                      Modern computers don't use that much plastic either. Again, high value use of what plastic is in there. Maybe fewer polycarbonate windows and more plain steel sides, but then, I don't like windows on my computers anyways. Make the frame out of aluminu

                    • Oh, forgot to address the kerosene vs gasoline thing:

                      Motor gasoline is 47%. [energiesmedia.com]
                      Jet Fuel is 8%.

                      Increasing Jet fuel by 100% is still less than increasing gasoline by 20%.
                      We currently produce 19-20 gallons of gasoline and only 4-5 gallons of jet fuel.

                      Looking, the current increase of kerosene is closer to 2-5%. It isn't 100%.

                      We use a lot more gasoline than kerosene today.

        • First, EVs only tend to be around 1k pounds [torquenews.com] heavier than ICE equivalents. And even ICE cars weigh in at 3k-4k pounds these days, so it's more like a 30% weight increase, not a doubling.
          Second, they only chew through tires if you drive them like they're sports cars.
          Third, we don't really burn oil to make electricity in most of the USA and rest of the world, and the rate of that is dropping.
          Currently, we use steam reformation techniques to increase the fractional distillation of oil that is gasoline. We sto

    • The only way they become a thing in India is if they have battery swap stations like China built out.

      But that either means one primary company, or all of the companies agreeing to one battery standard. ... and likely increasing the cost of the cars a bit, as you don't have as much flexibility when designing them

      And you actually need reliable power going to those stations

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Moryath ( 553296 )

        It's not even that. Think about the actual use cases in India. Who actually buys vehicles in India? To even afford to buy a vehicle, someone has to be on the higher end of the income scale.

        The USA has ~0.85 four-wheeled vehicles per person. India has 0.034 four-wheeled vehicles per person. [dataforindia.com] The average Indian is FAR more likely to walk, use public transportation, a motorcycle, or a moped to commute to a job, go for groceries, etc.

        The reason to have a car in India is LITERALLY to show off that you're a

        • by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Tuesday December 03, 2024 @09:47AM (#64987747)
          Seems like the next logical step is for more people to get an ebike, not an electric car. And apparently the ebike market is growing at 10% per year.

          https://www.mxmoto.co/blogs/el... [mxmoto.co]

          • by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Tuesday December 03, 2024 @10:22AM (#64987813)

            Seems like the next logical step is for more people to get an ebike, not an electric car.

            Indeed. But a car is seen as a status symbol. India's gender imbalance is not as severe as China's, but enough to put pressure on young men to invest in status symbols to attract a GF/bride.

            Another problem is that India spends way more on fossil fuel subsidies than on EV subsidies.

            The fuel subsidies are especially stupid because India imports, like, 98% of its oil.

            The first step should be to remove the fossil fuel subsidies and replace them with taxes.

            • The first step should be to remove the fossil fuel subsidies and replace them with taxes.

              That will totally get you elected.

        • The reason the battery swap stations are so well used in China isn't personal use... it's taxis.

          And those could be running for many hours every day, when a personal car is usually about commuting or errands.

          I don't know what the standard is for taxis in India (sitting on the back of a motorcycle? Jitneys?), but there should be an attempt to electrify those first, busses, and last-mile delivery trucks (long distance will probably need to stay gas, or maybe hybrids)

        • India has more cars than the USA has people. The demographics of India skew your comparison, the USA has a far higher urbanisation rate than India, and many people who live in cities drive cars - they have some phenomenal traffic jams as a result.

          No owning a car is not an advertisement that you're a rich arsehole, it's a reflection of where you live and work. Indian cars do not cost the same as a Cybertruck or a F-150. In fact one of the more popular cars in India costs less than the moped the 17 year old n

      • Perhaps the Shipstone corporation would be a good bet?
    • by bomek ( 63323 ) on Tuesday December 03, 2024 @09:25AM (#64987685) Homepage

      I'm currently Bangalore and we experience multiple powercut a day. That can last from few seconds to few hours.

      • I'm currently Bangalore and we experience multiple powercut a day.

        Dispatchable demand from EVs can stabilize the grid and reduce power cuts.

    • Who in India buys a car? It's a very, very small percentage of the population. EV subsidies are nice, but they don't make EVs cheaper to buy/operate than an ICE vehicle I suspect.

      Is the electricity grid in India up to the task of recharging EVs as easily as an ICE vehicle can be fueled?

      The issues in India go far, far beyond purchase price.

      • by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Tuesday December 03, 2024 @10:33AM (#64987843)

        It's a very, very small percentage of the population.

        8% of Indian households own a car.

        8% of 1.5B is 120 million people.

        EV subsidies are nice

        India also subsidizes gasoline.

        Subsidies are a great way to buy votes, so all political parties promise them, and none dare to cut them.

        Is the electricity grid in India up to the task of recharging EVs

        EVs are dispatchable demand. They are mostly charged at night and add little to peak demand.

    • Can you find 250kW DC fast chargers at many convenient locations when taking long trips? This might be the issue in India.

      That's so adorable - you think the issue holding back EV adoption in India is because going on long trips is too inconvenient with an EV that relies on a public charging network?

      You really think the average Indian takes enough long-distance road trips (defined as a trip that requires multiple charges to get from start to destination) that an EV doesn't make sense to them?

    • What charging infrastructure?

      I went to Tataâ(TM)s to try out their Nexon EV and asked about superchargers and their locations. A sheepish sales guy told me there was one next door but it didnâ(TM)t work.

      Recently on Twitter/X an EV owner related his travails driving from Bangalore to Chennai. Long story short his battery went dead on the highway and he had to get towed. Note that Bangalore is allegedly one of the high tech aware cities in India.

      The other problems are almost no apartment complexes h

    • They should maybe subsidize building of toilets and chargers first, before trying to sell ecars.
      • They should maybe subsidize building of toilets

        The Indian government spends billions of rupees on toilets.

        But the root problem is cultural rather than economic.

        and chargers

        Chargers are not a significant barrier to EV adoption.

        I've had an EV since 2015 and haven't used a public charger in years.

        • Chargers are not a significant barrier to EV adoption.

          I've had an EV since 2015 and haven't used a public charger in years.

          Chargers are not a significant barrier to EV adoption for me.

          FTFY

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      Is it easy to add 10kW of power consumption to a home?

      Sure. Let me just shinny up this pole [travellerspoint.com]. Hey! You want free cable while I'm up here?

  • ... of the Honda SuperCub for adoption of EVs in Asia to happen.

    I'd bet the by far largest part of Indias and South East Asias economic activity runs off of small frame scooters and light motorcycles.

    The Honda SuperCub is the prime example of what is needed. It's fuel efficiency is of the charts and second to none. A wire coat hanger and a box of paperclips is a viable source of spare parts and in a pinch you can fuel it with low grade paint thinner. It's design has remained basically unchanged since 1958, the motor was designed by Soichiro Honda himself and has been licensed and copied more than just about any other technical device in history. Most of small frame motorcycles worldwide have a powertrain based on its design. They last a lifetime and then some, you can get share parts in the most remote regions of the world and they're low on those the village smith might just whip up a new crank shaft for you from some rebar he has lying around or something like that. They're nigh indestructible and are valued family heritage even with current day half-nomad in Indias outback and remote afgan or mongol tribes.

    The SuperCub alone has sold more than 115 million times, orders of magnitude more than any other powered vehicle. If you see any pictures of a family of 5 in Asia riding a motorcycle, it's very likely a SuperCub.

    We need the equivalent of that in electric. Once that happens, adoption will happen with no problem. It might take a while because any monkey with a learning disability can repair Hondas ride with a pocket knife, but that would definitely be the litmus test for true EV adoption.

    • We need the equivalent of that in electric.

      It's called an e-Bike kit. Like with a motorized hub wheel. If the bike is mangled it can be moved to another bike.

      • by stripes ( 3681 ) on Tuesday December 03, 2024 @09:50AM (#64987757) Homepage Journal

        Yep, eBikes are fantastic for efficiency, low pollution, and even range anxiety (20 mile range, and you are worried about going 22 miles one day? Pedal harder that one day, done!).

        On the other hand they kind of suck for keeping weather off of you, for keeping warm when it is cold (ok, ok, “pedal harder, it’ll keep you warm”), and for keeping you dry when it rains. Basically they have many of the problems of regular bikes. Still they are vastly cheaper than even the cheapest of cars. I use to commute on the bike’s close relative a eScooter, mostly because a folding scooter was under $500 and a folding eBike was very much not (and to be fair it was partly a eBike/scooter commute, and partly a bus so I needed to fold the thing). It was in CA so snow wasn’t an issue, and rain while it was miserable was rarely an issue. I still borrowed my wife’s car a few times on some of the bad rain days (twice at her insistence, and a few more times because I got spoiled by not needing a full change of clothes once I got to work!)

        So there might still be a place for an enclosed low cost car with minimal HVAC.

  • Apples and Oranges (Score:4, Informative)

    by laughingskeptic ( 1004414 ) on Tuesday December 03, 2024 @09:41AM (#64987731)
    India's subsidies explicitly exclude cars and focuses on: "electric two-wheelers, three-wheelers, buses, and trucks" -- and these vehicles have to be completely electric, no hybrids. So vehicles large enough to be considered "trucks" get subsidies.
  • by Comboman ( 895500 ) on Tuesday December 03, 2024 @10:14AM (#64987793)

    India is one of the few countries that hasn't sanctioned Russia, meaning their gas is currently artificially cheap since they are one of the few remaining markets for Russian oil. I'm sure that doesn't help electric car sales.

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