Setoral

Transportation in Kathmandu is dominated by petrol and diesel driven cars. Major adverse impacts are enormous traffic jams and pollution with CO, NOx, unburnt hydrocarbons, suspended particulate matters and probably high ozone levels. This creates health problems, especially for young children and older people.

The town of Kathmandu provides an excellent model for both, the challenges and the opportunities for electric vehicles. This valley of only 540 square kilometres is subject to serious air inversions. Kathmandu with its adjacent neighbour, Patan, are very densely populated and encircled by a ring road of about 30km in length and a diameter of less than 12km in any direction. With the exception of five major streets, most traffic through the city is on narrow congested streets. For these reasons, distances travelled are short and speeds are low. The maximum speed in the city is 40km/h and the average less than 12km/h.

In addition, Nepal has the second greatest potential for hydroelectric power in the world and power tariffs are low. Finally, Kathmandu has a temperate climate with temperatures very seldom below freezing and seldom above 35 degrees Celsius. All of these conditions make Kathmandu well suited for a very standard, low cost electric vehicle technology. These factors and the relatively small number of vehicles compared with cities such as Delhi and Bangkok provides the opportunity for dramatic improvements on air quality at a relatively low cost in a short period of time.

It is very likely that the vehicles, which will successfully compete this market, will be different from the electric vehicles sold in industrialised countries. Electric road vehicles that are designed for the western markets must meet much higher performance standards of speed and range. They must meet customary standards of comfort and aesthetic design. Such vehicles will generally be over-designed and too expensive for the market of the developing world.

Usage and Markets of Electric Vehicles

The performance of existing EV’s should now be gradually enhanced through technical improvements on batteries, motors, control systems and other components. But their costs are not yet low enough and their performance is not yet adequate to support introduction on a scale that would have a significant effect on the environment or energy consumption. On the other hand, EV development has accelerated rapidly over the past few months. More capital and manpower than ever before have been invested in technical advance.

It is estimated that about 600 EV’s are in use in Kathmandu. For the time being, the most promising market for EV’s is public transportation, whereas other markets have to be looked into.

EV’s, which are now commercially available here, can travel a distance of about 70 km in the city with one battery charge, attaining a top speed of 40 kilometres per hour. This level of performance meets requirements for urban use. These EV’s are electric versions of Vikram Tempos chassis with a Nepal made body. This approach has been adopted because, when only a few hundred units for each model are manufactured, it is cheaper than designing and building a totally new model for electric traction. These vehicles are equipped with lead-acid batteries and direct current (DC) motors. Nevertheless, the selling price of these vehicles is high if they have to compete with LPG tempos and microbuses just introduced.

On the question of commercialising new types of vehicles, considerable EV market analysis work has to be carried out to open new niche markets. Findings suggest that the attractiveness and market penetration of EV’s will improve as consumers learn more about these vehicles, and as their technology advances and prices fall.

Technology

Most modern EV’s can travel a distance in the range of 60 to 90 kilometres in the city on each full battery charge and are able to attain a top speed of 70km to 90km per hour. Such performance levels are vastly inferior to those of ICEV’s (Internal combustion Engine Vehicles), but they may meet the minimum performance requirements for urban use.

The primary cause for this poor performance is the capacity of their batteries. The lead-acid batteries used in the EV’s now on the market, can store at most, roughly 30Wh of useable electric energy for each kilogram of battery weight. This is equivalent to about 1/400 of the 13’000Wh of energy contained in 1 kg gasoline. Newer types of battery systems can store up to 3 times more energy than lead acid batteries.

By loading an EV with batteries weighing about ten times the weight of the gasoline that a conventional car usually carries, it is possible to increase the cruising range to one-tenth to one-quarter of that of a conventional vehicle. Electric vehicles with lead acid batteries generally need more than 50 % of its empty weight on batteries in order to have an acceptable range performance.

To be able to calculate the cruising range of an electric vehicle or to calculate the amount of batteries required for a certain driving pattern it is necessary to know the power requirement, the energy demand and the available energy of the batteries of a vehicle.

Vehicle Layout

The term „electric vehicles" includes a variety of vehicles such as: electric cars, electric buses, electric motorbikes, scooters and bicycles, solar powered vehicles and many others. Electric propulsion is a very common means of transportation. It includes also such systems as electric trains, elevators, cable cars etc. Electric transport systems have been successful in these applications, because they do not depend on energy storage in batteries on the car. Electric vehicles have also been successful in applications where the heavy weight of the batteries is desired, such as in forklifts or aircraft towers.

Electric cars may be divided into two major groups: purpose-built or conversions. A purpose-built EV is built from concept to be electric and is built to meet specific requirements. Therefore, they have much better performance characteristics than conversions. They are lighter and the layout of the car can be made easier than with conversions. The placement of the batteries can be optimised. As prototypes or manufactured in small series, purpose built EV’s are always more expensive than conversions.

In conversions type electric vehicles, which were originally powered by an internal combustion engine, all components, unnecessary for electric propulsion, such as engine, gearbox, tail pipe and petrol tank are removed. The components related to electrical traction such as the electric motor, the controller and the batteries are installed. Because of their volume and weight it is often difficult to place the batteries in a proper manner. Conversions always have a higher weight than purpose built cars, because they were originally not designed for electric propulsion. Often structural parts and suspension must be reinforced, to take up the additional weight of the batteries.

There are other classifications for electric cars. EV’s can be built as commuter cars, personal vehicles, pickup cars, vans, as taxis, as airport and industrial vehicles. They may also be classified according to the seating capacity, single seaters, two seaters or as vehicle for several persons.

Types of Vehicles used in developing countries

In developing countries the type of cars used may vary considerably from those used in western cities. Given as an example are the categories of vehicles used in Kathmandu.

For public transportation diesel buses and electric trolleybuses, minibuses and three-wheelers are used. Petrol-driven three-wheelers and four wheel sedan cars operate as taxis. Bicycle rickshaws are a common public means of transportation.

Goods delivery is done by large diesel trucks, which are partly prohibited from operating in certain areas of the city. For the distribution of goods smaller diesel and petrol trucks, diesel and petrol three-wheelers, diesel and petrol tractors and bicycle rickshaws are used.

Private passenger transportation is by buses, passenger cars, motorcycles and bicycle rickshaws.

To set up an electric vehicle programme in a developing country among other factors the following must be considered:

All these parameters and many more must be studied carefully and must be evaluated and weighted against each other. A good EV combines all these factors in an optimal manner so that the original purpose is best fulfilled.

There are some important factors, which should be observed for the development of better EV’s:

Reducing running resistance is not an issue unique to EV development. It will also help to lower the fuel consumption of conventional cars and their emissions.

Nevertheless, when compared in terms of their need to reduce running resistance, this is a greater issue for EV’s than for ICEV’s. Reduced running resistance means not only cutting energy consumption (i.e. extension of driving range) for EV’s, but also critical improvements in gradability, acceleration and top speed all essential points that have been considered problems in the past performance of EV’s. A reduced load on the battery will also serve to extend its service life and thus, helps to reduce operating costs.

The most difficult technical problem that EV developers are facing is the relatively short driving range, while the power source is the major cause of this problem. Up to the present time, the most important EV issue is to develop batteries that provide high performance, more particularly, high specific energy at low costs. It is likely that this will continue to be the key issue.

*) Eisenring is an EV Consultant based in Bienenstrasse 21, CH-9244 Niederuzwil, Switzerland Phone 0041 71 951 39 85, Fax 0041 71 951 39 85,

E-mail: <eisenring@bluewin.ch> This article is adapted from a paper he presented at a program held recently in Kathmandu.

Corporate Movements

Rajeev Khanna has joined Himalayan Distillery (P) Ltd. as Brand and Promotion Manager. Earlier, he was working with Crayons Electra Nepal (P) Ltd., an advertising agency.

Keshav Deuba has joined Bajra Enterprises (P) Ltd., dealer of Zongshen Chinese mobikes, as Sales Manager. He was with Morang Auto Works for the last one year working as Marketing Executive.

Sunaina Shah has joined Himal Media Pvt. Ltd. as Marketing Manager. She was working as Administrative Manager in PANOS, a news agency.

Rajendra Gurung of Gorkha Brewery has been promoted to Deputy Director (Sales and Marketing). He was earlier working as Head of the sales and marketing department for the last one year.

Rajendra Singh has left Thompson Nepal where he was working as Associate Director (Strategic Planning) for about two months. After leaving Thompson he is now reviving Prismark, an ad agency which he had established together with his two other friends.

Vikram B. Kanshal CEO of United Finance Ltd. has left the Company where he was working for one and a half year. He has now joined Escorts Finance Ltd. (EFL) Mumbai office as Assistant Vice-President. Before coming to Nepal Kanshal was in the same company at Lucknow office. He is replaced by Jyoti Raj Nair in UFL who comes from EFL Calcutta office where he was working for the last two years. Nair has worked with EFL for 8 years. Escorts Finance Ltd. India was a joint venture partner in United Finance Ltd., Nepal in the past.

Vivek Kapoor,Chief Finance Controller of Mount Everest Brewery, has resigned from the company.

SP Singh is to join Himalaya Times (P) Ltd. from 1st January 2001 as Managing Director of the publication, according to a reliable source. Singh is consultant (Marketing and Development) of Necon Air Ltd. till the date. He is also a publisher of "Young Herald" a children’s tabloid newspaper.

Shailendra K. Shrestha, Insurance Advisor of Everest Insurance company (EIC), has resigned from the company and is possibly joining upcoming NB Insurance promoted by NB group. Shrestha began his insurance career with Rastriya Beema Sansthan and later joined United Insurance and then Everest Insurance.

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Future EV’s for Nepal

By Markus Eisenring

Usage and Markets of Electric Vehicles

Technology

Vehicle Layout

Types of Vehicles used in developing countries

Corporate Movements