With increasing incidents of electric two-wheelers catching fire, Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said the companies found negligent will be penalised and a recall of all defective vehicles will be ordered after receiving the report of an expert panel that has been formed to enquire into the matter. In a series of tweets, Gadkari said several mishaps involving electric two-wheelers have come to light in the last two months. "We have constituted an expert committee to enquire into these incidents and make recommendations on remedial steps.
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Nearly a decade ago, the first fully electric vehicle (EV) caught fire on the road in the US. It was a model from Tesla, the world's most admired EV maker. A metal fragment punctured the underbelly of the vehicle, penetrating its battery pack, leading to a fire. Indian lawmakers and automakers have had nine years to study the incident (in fact, three Tesla Model Ss caught fire in two months in 2013) but seem to have learnt little.
'On the road, you see only youth in Swiggy, Big Basket and Zomato uniforms.' 'Just now, I had a delivery from Amazon, and do you know what his qualification was? He was an engineering graduate!' 'The Ola driver who took me to the airport had an MCom degree. 'Where is the match between education and employment?'
So far at least eight incidents of EV fires have been reported in just over a month's time.
In India, it is fighting a pitched battle against Ola.
Electric scooter registrations of eight companies which represent 95 per cent of the market have seen a sharp fall of over 24 per cent in May. They have registered 32,680 electric scooters against 43,098 in April according to VAHAN data from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways available till the evening of 31 May. Auto analysts say the fall is a reflection of the initial pent up demand in the market for such vehicles,which was evinced in huge bookings, being met.
With just a month left in this financial year, electric two-wheeler sales, so far, are at just 62 per cent of the ambitious target of 1 million units set for 2022-23 by the NITI Aayog. According to VAHAN data, compiled by the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV), 620,006 units of electric two-wheelers were sold across the country in FY23 until February 21. Though the industry may miss the 1-million target, sales in FY23 are already up 146 per cent from 249,621 units sold in FY22.
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The government will develop a mechanism to ensure that e-commerce companies and entities that have adopted Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) architecture are compliant with the rules. Non-compliance may result in a penalty. "We will have our own evaluation system, and if we find any player is not sticking to it, then we will take action. "Participants will have to be compliant with the rule of the land," Sanjiv, joint secretary at the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), told reporters on Thursday.
Known for its phones and emerging from nowhere in the segment, it might take on the scooter Goliaths.
At Prestige Polygon Towers in Chennai's Teynampet, hectic preparations are on for a mega global investors' meet under the aegis of Guidance Tamil Nadu (the state investment promotion agency) scheduled for January 2024. Asked about the key focus areas of the meet, the agency's managing director and chief executive officer, V Vishnu, said the state was betting big on electric mobility. This is no surprise, given that the state has signed electric vehicle (EV)-related memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with several companies in the recent past that may bring in investments worth around Rs 33,000 crore with the potential to create over 43,000 job opportunities.
The electric scooter juggernaut which has been picking up momentum with heady growth month-on-month is now slowing down. The combined number of registrations in April of eight electric two wheeler companies has seen a dip of over 1 per cent to 43,061 vehicles, according to data from the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways' site VAHAN. The reasons are the continuing shortage of chips, especially after the Ukraine-Russia war, and the spate of fires which have led to scooters being recalled by manufacturers.
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Tesla Inc, the world's largest electric car producer, is looking to make a significant investment in India, said its chief Elon Musk, who saw India as holding more promise than any other large country around the globe. Musk, after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said he plans to visit India in 2024. "I am confident that Tesla will be in India and we will do so as soon as humanly possible," Musk told reporters after the meeting.
The country saw a massive year-on-year surge in the demand for electric vehicles, with retail sales of electric two-wheelers rising by 58 per cent, passenger vehicles by 130 per cent, three-wheelers by 82 per cent, and commercial vehicles by 171 per cent in March 2023, according to the data shared by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (Fada). According to a report by JMK Research, the EV segment as a whole grew by 157 per cent during FY23, to 1,180,597 units, from 458,746 units a year ago. Overall, EV sales in March 2023 rose by 82 per cent from the March 2022 figure, the JMK report added.
To ramp up domestic battery manufacturing capacity and reduce the dependence on imports, the government has initiated talks with a few lithium-rich countries to supply the mineral to Indian companies, industry sources informed Business Standard. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) held a meeting with the ambassadors of countries, including Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia, among others, to put forth its request.
Tata Motors, India's largest electric passenger vehicle manufacturer, has signed an agreement with ride-hailing company Uber to supply 25,000 electric vehicles (EVs), the company said. The agreement is the largest EV commitment between an automotive manufacturer and a ride-sharing platform in India. Under the agreement, Uber will deploy Tata Motors' XPRES-T EVs by partnering fleet operators in Delhi National Capital Region, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Ahmedabad.
With Uber & Ola fighting it out, the taxi aggregator space is set for massive growth.
Tata Motors, India's largest electric passenger vehicle manufacturer, has signed an agreement with ride-hailing company Uber to supply 25,000 electric vehicles (EVs), the company said. The agreement is the largest EV commitment between an automotive manufacturer and a ride-sharing platform in India. Under the agreement, Uber will deploy Tata Motors' XPRES-T EVs by partnering fleet operators in Delhi National Capital Region, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Ahmedabad.
"Lady candidates need not apply." So read the postscript in a job notice from Telco (now Tata Motors) on a notice board in the corridors of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (now Bengaluru), in 1974. Irked, Sudha Murty, who was then pursuing her masters in computer science at the institute, wrote a postcard to JRD Tata, expressing her surprise at this gender discrimination, especially since the Tata Group were pioneers on many fronts. Shortly, Murty became the first woman on the firm's shop floor.
The average salary received by students during campus placements for 2021-2022 was Rs 21.48 lakh per annum. The highest salary offered was $250,000.
If you thought electric scooters have caught the fancy of only people in the metros, think again. According to data from electric two-wheeler maker, Ather Energy, 54 per cent of its sales of scooters, starting from Rs 1.2 lakh, come from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Based on sales per lakh population, the top five cities for the company are Calicut, followed by Kochi, Kolaphur, Trivandrum and Pune.
In light of the recent incidents involving scooters from prominent electric mobility brands bursting into flames, the subject of electric vehicle (EV) safety has come under the spotlight. As many as 20 electric scooters of Nashik-based Jitendra EV Tech caught fire after being loaded on a transport container. While no one has been reported injured, the company said it is conducting an investigation to find the 'root cause' of the fire.
The government is considering the option of inviting fresh applications to bid for the fourth slot which fell vacant after one of the initial candidates who qualified, Hyundai Global Motors, exited from the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for advanced chemistry cell battery storage with a capacity of 20 GwH. Earlier, stakeholders had expected that the vacant slot would be offered to waitlisted players ranked on their technical and financial offer. A final decision will be taken soon.
The government is at a "fairly advanced stage" of finalising a well-coordinated e-commerce policy and consumer protection rules, which will incorporate provisions of Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said on Thursday. "E-commerce rules and e-commerce policy will be congruent with each other... That exercise is at a fairly advanced stage," Singh told reporters. The remarks come on a day the number of daily transactions on the platform has gone up 500 times since the beginning of this year with the number of retail merchants added to its roster growing 40-fold.
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as the FAME II deadline of March 31, 2024, nears, EV manufacturers are worried about their investments and future plans.
The government-appointed expert committee, which probes incidents of Ola Electric's S1 Pro and Okinawa vehicles catching fires, has added the latest case of fire involving PureEV electric scooter to its investigation, a senior government official told Business Standard. "A team comprising experts from Indian Institute of Science (IISC) and Centre for Fire, Explosive and Environment Safety (CFEES) are investigating the cases. "As soon as the report is submitted, we shall take appropriate action," said Giridhar Aramane, secretary at the ministry of road transport and highways.
Uber has come up with a technology integration feature called "emergency assistance" that aims to provide public safety authorities with real-time actionable data in case of an emergency during a ride. In the event of an emergency, riders or drivers will be able to share their live location, which shall be updated every four seconds, along with their name and contact details at the swipe of a button on the Uber app with the police. This will lead to saving critical time by providing potentially life-saving assistance by the police.
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If you have seen Zwigato, Param Kumar's story will sound familiar. Laid off from his job as a repairman at a Gurugram-based water purifier provider, he now delivers groceries and food for a mobile-based delivery app, in Delhi. Kumar, who started making deliveries last August, told Business Standard that he is working longer hours than his older salaried job as an RO repairman, and has no paid leaves or health insurance. Kumar is part of India's estimated 7.7 million-strong force of gig workers.
With a report on Uber by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) opening a Pandora's box, the company is in a damage-control mode. Distancing itself from the actions of its management pre-2017, Uber, while acknowledging the "mistakes" of the past, has said that under CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, it "is a different company". "There has been no shortage of reporting on Uber's mistakes prior to 2017.
According to experts, this will have major impact on new investments by Chinese players in companies, such as Paytm, Ola, BigBasket, Byju's, Dream11, MakeMyTrip, and Swiggy, when they go for follow-up funding. Chinese investors, such as Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi, are active in the Indian start-up space, and have collectively invested billions of dollars.
Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), India's second-largest two-wheeler maker, on Wednesday revealed its electric vehicle (EV) roadmap, which includes setting up a dedicated EV factory, launching the first two EVs in 2023-24, and establishing 6,000 battery exchange points in the country. HMSI plans to establish a specialised unit for the manufacturing of electric vehicles (EVs), named 'Factory E', at its Narsapura plant located in Karnataka. Factory E will be created by converting an existing production line that currently manufactures internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, said Atsushi Ogata, HMSI managing director and chief executive officer.
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