Pipe dream

People in responsible positions in the government continue to be in a campaign mode, making fantastic claims and setting up impossible targets. Elon Musk, one of the pioneers of electric vehicle technology, has set up free charging grids in the US, where neither supply nor distribution is a constraint. With our infrastructure to target 2030 for a complete shift to electric car speaks for itself. In Bengaluru a whiff of wind or a drizzle is sufficient to shut off electricity. We keep wondering if candles are the source of power! In one of the districts of Karnataka, a state that surprisingly doesn’t figure amongst the laggards front-paged in your paper on Monday (“UDAY fails to power discoms in laggard state”), we spent four continuous days without III phase electricity last week.

Technology for electric vehicles largely depends on lithium battery as of now. Availability and eventual cost driven by quantum jump in demand of lithium doesn't appear to have been factored in. Do we have to live on dreams?

M K Subbiah   Bengaluru Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to: 

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