Tenets I followed: Facts not opinion

Facts not opinon

Opinions are easy. Facts need work. When managing an organisation bring in a culture of facts. Use deductions based on facts to counter conflicting opinions. The extra work done will refine decisions and steer the organisation in a better direction.

Tenets I followed: Praise in public admonish in private

When deciding to praise some one, it is best done in public. 

On the other hand if some one has to be admonished it is best done in private. 

The public praise spurs others to do better. 

A private admonishment, on many occasions, leads to a frank exchange of views and a better result overall. 

This is a golden rule.

Tenets I followed: Know what is in your control

You have control over limited things in your life.

Try to identify these things and do whatever best you can in these areas.

I found this helped in avoiding dissatisfaction and in often accomplishing what one wanted.

Tenets I followed: Look for the simple solution

When looking for a solution in a complex situation, what is right? 

The mind can construct a complicated 'algorithm' to plod a way to what is the solution. Some times this may be the only way. 

However, to test a solution against the other, look for simplicity. 

The simpler the solution the better it is. 

It will be easy to understand by all, it will require less convincing, and will be longer lasting. 

So always strive to find a simple solution.

Why are e-rickshaws such a success story in India?

E-rickshaws are now seen almost on every road in any city of India. This is a phenomenal increase in the number of these electric vehicles . Market sources say that there are 1500000 e-rickshaws on Indian roads[1].

On the other hand if you look at the other electric vehicles which are manufactured by automobile companies they have not yet penetrated into the Indian market in large numbers; so why is it that the e-rickshaw has become such a success?

There are many reasons for this phenomenon.

To start with in the year 2015 the rules were changed and e-rickshaws were permitted to run on roads. This gave a big impetus to the sales of e-rickshaws.

An e-rickshaw is a pretty simple vehicle. It uses lead acid batteries, an induction motor which gives the drive to the rear wheels through a differential, and there is a controller which controls the speed of the motor and therefore the vehicle. The motors are of approximately 800 w and lead acid batteries are easily available. On one charge the e-rickshaw will run around 80 odd kms. The max speed of 25 kmph. It is, therefore, a pretty simple vehicle.

The best part is that an e-rickshaw can seat 4 passengers along with the driver. It is available in the market for about INR 100000 which is less than USD 1500. Running cost is cheap and so it is viable for a person to earn his livelihood by running an e-rickshaw. And also it is plugging in to complete a huge need in India, that is the last mile connectivity.

While in big cities we have got the Metros which quickly transport large number of passengers, there is a shortage of reasonably priced transport for last mile connectivity. In fact e-rickshaws have largely replaced the pedal rickshaws which were earlier available for this purpose.

People are buying e-rickshaws because it is a technology which is easily available to them and e-rickshaws can be used for earning their daily wage and it is easy for them to use it.

Another peculiar thing which has allowed e-rickshaws to succeed in India is that traditionally if you see the Indian roads the traffic is very forgiving to the slower vehicles. Traffic is used to seeing a lot of slow moving vehicles on the road. For example before e-rickshaws we had the pedal rickshaws on our roads. The Indian driver is used to giving road space to the slower moving vehicle. This has worked in favor of the e-rickshaw.

As the technology required to produce an e-rickshaw is available within the general technology threshold of the Indian ecosystem. Much automobile designing is not needed. This has allowed a large number of small firms to manufacture e-rickshaws. This also keeps the costs low and makes e-rickshaws affordable.

If you were to make a proper EV, even a small car, it would need a detailed design process and would have to be tested. The manufacturer would need the ability to mass manufacture and to market and provide servicing stations. All these additional factors come in. New manufacturers of regular EVs have to surmount all these barriers to competition. But these barriers to competition are not there for the e-rickshaw manufacturers.

Another aspect is mass manufacture. For a normal EV setting up a factory for mass manufacture is an expensive proposition. And then you have to market in numbers. But in the case of the e-rickshaw a very large number of small firms manufacture e-rickshaws thus making them available in the numbers required.

These e-rickshaws almost literally market themselves.

Hence the number of e-rickshaws you see on Indian roads have ballooned and you see them everywhere in all cities.







References:


[1]Thehindubusinessline.com







PS.
Also see my blog posts:
My take on the future of EVs
Incentives and infrastructure for Electric Vehicles in India:
Electric Vehicles in India: we are at a cusp of change
E Rickshaw shows the way: an electric vehicle success story

My take on the future of EVs

I recently published an article on my website Jastej.com. I am reproducing it here as part of my blog. Looking forward to seeing your comments.

Image by Pixabay.com

Are electric vehicles the future?

By Jastej Singh Matharu
[The automobile industry is in an exciting new stage of transition in search for relevance]

As an automobile engineer all things related to motorized vehicles are of interest to me. What I find especially fascinating at the present juncture is the way the auto industry is changing and transforming.

Here in India the sector is passing through a rough time where the demand for vehicles has dropped and all companies are passing through a trying time. Even if you look at the larger picture around the world you find a similar drop in demand in many other markets.

It seems that the car industry the world over is going through a churn of sorts.

So what is really happening? Let us look at the new technologies which are now emerging. Technologies which some time back were considered to be niche and were used only by select  companies and are now being adopted by all as mainstream. For instance, owning a hybrid automobile has now become more or less common place. There are a large number of such models available from many companies.

These cars are running on the internal combustion engine which is being assisted by an electric motor. But what truly seems to be changing is the emergence of the pure electric vehicle.

While earlier pure electric vehicles were being produced by only a few companies now mainstream companies are coming out with a pure electric versions of even some of their best selling models.

So how does one determine where this changing environment is headed. The one thing which gives a sure picture of where things are going is how companies are investing. Where is money being spent by automobiles companies and by companies which buy automobiles in bulk.

Amazon is buying 100000 Revian EVs which will be used by Amazon as delivery vehicles. And the first 10000 vans are expected to go into service in just another 2 to 3 years [1]. This is a huge order. It is worth noting that Revian, the company which will supply the vans is a non mainstream automobile company. In fact it is a company in which Amazon has invested. Making it clear that Amazon feels that this is to it’s benefit. This massive investment nudging the automobile market towards an EV future.

It increasingly appears that the idea of EVs is something which is now amongst us. And it is emerging and getting reflected in various forms.

If you look at the two wheeler industry it can be noticed, that alongside the mainstream companies, a large number of startups have emerged which are offering pure electric  two wheeled vehicles.

There is an ease with which new companies are now able to start up and give competition to established automobile companies.

There would be many factors influencing this trend but it appears that one of the main reasons is the simplicity of the electric motor which is now replacing the internal combustion engine.

The internal combustion engine has been there for a century but the challenge with it  is that a vertical movement of pistons in an engine has to be converted through a crankshaft into a rotational movement.

Another issue is that the range of speed which the internal combustion engine offers. This range is insufficient to cover the entire speed range which is needed by the vehicle wheels which are being driven by it. So we have to bring in a gearbox and step up or step down the gears in order to cover the entire range. This brings in the need of a clutch, essentially losing the simplicity of mechanism.

On the other hand the electrical motor, which while being simple, is able to give us a torque curve which the combination of the internal combustion engine, the clutch and the gearbox arrangement can only aspire to achieve.

So in the electric motor we have a simple driving engine which is giving the best possible torque curve and which is more or less covering the entire range of speed which the driven wheels of the vehicle need.

So this simplicity of the engine, the electric motor, is making it possible for startups to build competing pure electric vehicles.

Once you got the engine and the transmission simplified things start to fall in place. The fact is that technology for manufacturing electric motor is well stabilized and this implies that startups can source these motors easily.

They do not have to go through a huge design and development cycle which would be needed for developing an internal combustion engine.

So as this idea of pure electric vehicle on our roads is taking root. If the mainstream automobile companies take time to switch to pure electric vehicle and the flow of change is not fast enough, then in all likelihood manufacturers may move ahead and create new markets which all companies will have to follow to remain relevant.

In a way compelling the mainstream automobile industry to move faster towards this change.

Recently there was an announcement that Tata Motors has developed a new pure electric power-train called Ziptron[2]. This is a clear indication of things to come as they will be able to fit this power-train to power many of their existing popular models.

Toyota, which is one of the front runners in developing hybrid vehicle technologies, is offering a vehicle which has solar panels fitted on it[3].

Jaguar which has made considerable investment in developing their pure electric car I-Pace. Similarly other companies have also developed pure electric models. It was recently reported that in the UK market the Jaguar I-Pace pure electric car has become a top seller[4] in it’s genre.

In an interview given by Ralph Speth the JLR Global CEO recently he has mentioned that the growth in customer demand of EVs is faster than expected and the supply of batteries is not able to catch up for sufficient cars to be produced[5]. More manufacturers of large batteries are needed to meet this demand.

A roadblock in this future of the EV is the issue of lack of proper infrastructure such as charging points. But even here if you look at the world over you find every country moving in the direction of providing more charging points.

It is remarkable that automobile companies are themselves taking interest in installing charging stations. It was reported recently that VW is planning to install 4000 electric charging stations in Germany by 2025[6]. Tata Motors has taken the initiative to come up with electric charging points in coordination with Tata Power and they are planning to create 300 electric charging stations[7].

The supply of batteries is likely to improve as companies invest in new battery manufacturing plants in anticipation of increased demand. Exide is opening a plant for vehicle batteries which will be operational by this year’s end[8]. Tatas are setting up a battery manufacturing plant with a large investment[9].

All this may lead to cheaper batteries which will bring down the cost of pure electric vehicles. Once batteries become cheaper and once we are able to have larger batteries than the cost of the vehicles will come down and their range will increase.

So it seems that the automobile sector is heading towards introducing more pure electric vehicles.

When we finally  move away from a pure internal combustion engine vehicle to a pure electric vehicle, there will be exaltation in being able to contribute to the reduction of pollution which remains a major problem in many large cities of the world. The consumer could possibly feel that by going in for an electric vehicle they may be able to contribute towards the reduction of pollution.

The internal combustion engine powered vehicle will be there for many vehicle applications which cannot be covered by pure electric vehicles. And there will be also be a large number of hybrid vehicles.

It does seem though that eventually, sooner rather than later, we will see a rise in the number of pure electric vehicles on our roads.

It is an idea whose time is here and the events occurring all around us today attest to that reality.

As Victor Hugo famously said “No force on Earth can stop an idea whose time has come”.

References:
[1] Amazon orders 1 lakh Rivian EVs as delivery vehicles, Autocar India.
[2] Tata Motors up the ante in EV space with new engine, The Economic Times.
[3] Toyota Motor is trying to figure out how to make a car run forever, Business Standard.   
[4] Jaguar I-Pace Tops Pure Electric Vehicle Sales In Q2 In The UK, Car and Bike.
[5] I wouldn’t say the worst is over for China: Ralf Speth, JLR, Economic Times.
[6] Volkswagen To Install 4000 EV Charging Stations In Germany By 2025. Car and Bike.
[7] Tata Motors partners Tata Power to install 300 EV charging stations. liveMINT.
[8] Exide’s Gujarat plant to produce batteries for EVs to be operational by year-end. Financial Express.
[9] Tata plans to invest in lithium ion battery manufacturing in Gujarat. Business Line.

 

The joy of design

"I enjoy my work and design like I paint" said my daughter Amrita. She added "Just like when I paint I seem to know where every leaf should go. Just like in a symphony where every note knows where to go. So it is in my architecture design".

She then said thoughtfully "it all comes together when every bit is exactly where it should be".

Amrita, an architect, runs her own firm Archam Design in Gurgaon, India.

Today, is her birthday, and we gifted her this book 'Peter Zumthor Atmospheres'.

These thoughts about her work, flowed from the experience of her holding this admired book which she asked us to gift her!

Just yesterday she completed her office. The first design of hers which is fully realized in the real world.

The process of this design being made on a computer and then coming about in a actual form was fascinating to watch.
 
At one point when we were discussing one of her drawings she said to me "A drawing never lies, what is beautiful in a drawing is beautiful in real life". Now that her office interior is ready it becomes clear to me what she meant. It is true.

The step from the drawing board, which is poetic, to the pragmatic real world, which is based on available skills and materials is a tenuous link. The connect has to be nurtured to get the best results. Every design does not therefore come out the way it was thought.

It depends a lot on the skills of the people who build based on the design.

For example, a skilled worker in India learns his trade as an apprentice. He may not have formal training. But he knows how to use technology. And he is a fast learner.

Here are a few instances which we came across in our recent experience.

The carpenters were very comfortable in using pdf drawings for their work. The electrician pulled up an online video to see the process for fitting a complex electrical fitting. Messaging with the team were through a messaging app. Photographs of the work were shared between us online.

So aesthetics of design and actual work on ground came together through technology to produce a beautiful interior space. This is a joy of design.

The photo below is from this space.

Interiors by Archam Design