ENERGY NEWS JANUARY-2020 Petroleum Conservation Research Association Sanrakshan Bhawan 10, Bhikaji Cama Place New Delhi 110066 INDEX S. NO. SUBJECT PAGE 1 TRANSPORT 1.1 -E-Vehicles (EV) 1-17 1.2 -Oil & Gas run vehicles 17-19 2 ENVIRONMENT 2.1 - Air, Water & Sound pollution 19-24 2.2 -Health 24-25 3 ENERGY CONSERVATION 3.1 -Oil & Gas 25-64 4 RENEWABLE ENERGY 4.1 -Electricity 64-68 4.2 -Wind 68-71 4.3 -Solar 71-84 5 OTHERS 84-87 This Energy News contains excerpts of articles picked up from selected daily newspapers & magazines. MG Motor India launches ZS electric starting at Rs 20.88 lakh Morris Garages (MG) Motor India on Thursday launched its first electric vehicle ZS priced between ₹20.88 lakh and ₹23.58 lakh (ex-showroom in select five cities). Interestingly, the company has gotten maximum number of bookings from Bengaluru (more than 600) followed by Hyderabad (around 500), amongst the five cities it will begin to sell with. Bengaluru and Hyderabad is followed by Delhi-NCR (around 450), Mumbai (around 400) and Ahmedabad (around 150). The company will begin deliveries on January 27 across these cities, it said. “We are getting good response from all over...our target was around 1,000 cars a year because the whole industry sold 2,000 cars last year, but we received so many bookings without revealing the prices,” Chaba said, adding that it received over 2,800 bookings in 27 days. He added that the company received many bookings came from other States as well, especially Kerala, but had to deny them as MG has initial plans to sell the electric SUV in these five cities only. MG eShield- Meanwhile, the car-maker has introduced the MG eShield, which provides privately-registered customers with a free of charge five-year manufacturer warranty for unlimited kilometres on the car and eight years/1,50,000 km warranty on the battery. It also offers round-the-clock roadside assistance for five years for privately- registered cars, along with five labour-free services. MG has also entered an alliance with CarDekho.com that will provide assured resale value and can be availed by the customer by paying a stipulated amount at the time of purchase of ZS EV. ***** Our objective and target are to be a clear leader in the EV segment: Tata Motors Tata Motors aims for its electric vehicle (EV) business to contribute 10-15 per cent to the company’s overall passenger vehicle business in the next 4-5 years. Bullish on the potential of the nascent EV market in the country, it also plans to more than double its business by next year, as well as grow much faster than the industry, said 1 Shailesh Chandra, President – Electric Mobility Business & Corporate Strategy, Tata Motors. In an interview with BusinessLine, Chandra detailed Tata Motors’ plans for the EV market. Excerpts: OAs he rightly said, it is an imperative...We see this is as the next nation-building opportunity and we have the power of (an EV) ecosystem. The internal combustion engine (ICE) world is going to become more and more difficult — costs are going to increase, the technology investments will also keep on increasing, and that will make the price trend inflationary for the ICE market. As far as EVs are concerned, as the scale is going to grow, more localisation is going to come. And with the critical component price in batteries coming down much faster than what we are anticipating, the ability of EVs to compete on the acquisition price with ICE is becoming more and more possible in the short term. Therefore, it makes sense for Tata Motors to start seriously looking into this; the first mover always has the advantage. ***** PMI Electro and BYD-Olectra Bag Most E-bus Orders PMI Electro and BYD-Olectra have won large contracts floated by state transport agencies for supply of electric buses under a government scheme to promote green mobility, followed by Tata Motors, JBM Auto and Mytrah, people aware of the development said. Haryana-based PMI Electro Mobility Solutions, which has a technical tieup with Chinese commercial vehicle maker Beiqi Foton Motors, has bagged contracts for about 750 electric buses in the tenders that have been finalised so far, the persons cited earlier told ET, requesting not to be named. Phase two of the ₹10,000-crore government scheme — Faster Adoption And Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (Fame India) — proposes demand incentive of up to ₹55 lakh for long electric buses, ₹45 lakh for midi buses and ₹35 lakh for mini buses. Olectra-BYD, on the other hand, has won contracts for about 600 electric buses from city transport corporations, including those of Surat, Bhopal and Indore. Tata Motors said it continues to play a proactive 2 and constructive role in the e-mobility space with a long-term perspective of the cause. “In Fame Phase II as well, the company has participated in all tenders so far, and has won orders for 220 buses in two of them, in addition to the private tender of AJL for 300 buses,” the company said in its reply to ET’s query. Email queries to BYD-Olectra and JBM Auto remained unanswered till as of press time. ***** Ashok Leyland, ABB arm ink pact to develop electric buses with flash- charging tech Truck and bus maker Ashok Leyland and ABB Power Products and Systems India Ltd have signed an agreement for development former’s new electric buses using latter’s fastest flash-charging technology to advance urban mobility while cutting down carbon emissions. The pact is to develop a pilot electric bus based on ABB’s flash-charge technology, Tosa, which tops up the battery in just seconds while passengers get on and off the bus. This avoids the need to take the vehicle out of service for recharging every few hours or having a replacement bus ready, thus minimising the size of the fleet while increasing passenger carrying capacity, according to a statement. “The aim is to provide a zero local emission mass public transportation bus system with high passenger capacity. We are pleased to be working with Ashok Leyland in advancing responsible urban mobility,” said N Venu, Managing Director, ABB Power Products and Systems India, which represents ABB Power Grids’ business in India. ***** 3 What happens in Vegas… Hyundai S-A1 No, that is not the abbreviated model code name for the next compact sedan from the Korean brand. Instead, it is the full scale concept model of the first flying vehicle from Hyundai. Yes, you read that right, the brand is taking to the skies with a plan to get into mainstream production within the next 3 to 5 years. Hyundai Motor has partnered with Uber for the new partnership to develop Air Taxis for a future aerial ride share network. The new full-scale aircraft concept was unveiled at the CES. Hyundai is the first automotive company to join the Uber Elevate initiative, bringing automotive-scale manufacturing capability and a track record of mass-producing electric vehicles. The air vehicle concept was created in part through Uber’s open design process, a NASA-inspired approach that jump-starts innovation by publicly releasing vehicle design concepts so any company can use them to innovate their air taxi models and engineering technologies. In this partnership, Hyundai will produce and deploy the air vehicles, and Uber will provide airspace support services, connections to ground transportation, and customer interfaces through an aerial ride share network. Both parties are collaborating on infrastructure concepts to support take-off and landing for this new class of vehicles. Hyundai and Uber Elevate have collaborated to develop the PAV (Personal Air Vehicle) model, S- A1, that utilizes unique design to optimize the electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. It is designed for a cruising speed of up to 290 kmph, a cruising altitude of around 1,000-2,000 feet above ground, and to fly trips up to 100 kms range. The Hyundai vehicle will be 100 per cent electric, utilizing distributed electric propulsion and during peak hours will require about five to seven minutes for recharging. The 4 aircraft based on the S-A1 powered by distributed electric propulsion, will use multiple rotors and propellers around the airframe to increase safety by decreasing any single point of failure. Having several, smaller rotors also reduces noise relative to large rotor helicopters with combustion engines, which is very important to cities. The model is designed to take off vertically, transition to wing-borne lift in cruise, and then transition back to vertical flight to land. The 4-seater Hyundai vehicle will be piloted initially, but over time they will become autonomous. Mercedes-Benz VISION AVTR If it is Vegas, the Hollywoodian influence can’t be very far away. At CES this year, German luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz was the one posing for the cameras with a concept inspired by the hugely popular Sci-fi film series Avatar. According to Merc, their concept vehicle connects human, machine and nature in an unprecedented way. The Vision AVTR is the result of a global partnership between Mercedes-Benz and the AVATAR films franchise. The VISION AVTR concept vehicle uses a revolutionary battery technology developed with graphene-based organic cell chemistry that is completely free of rare earths and metals. The materials of the battery are compostable and therefore completely recyclable. In this way, Merc claims that electromobility can become independent of fossil resources. In doing so, the company wants to underline the high relevance of a future “circular economy” in the raw materials sector.