Webinar category: e-Mobility

e-Bus Adoption and Integration: Lessons from South Asia and Latin America

Two forces are acting globally to increase e-Buses penetration for environmental and economic benefits they offer 1) New cities making efforts to drive first pilot deployments and 2) Cities with existing e-Buses are working to improve integration and operational efficiency and increasing e-Bus fleet size. Indian State Transport Utilities (STUs) falls in both buckets, and similar is the scene globally. There are different business models including capex purchase, opex purchase, leasing and other variants that are being piloted to improve adoption of higher upfront cost e-Buses and balancing risk-return share between different players. There are different approaches of in-sourcing and out-sourcing manpower to transition to cleaner public transportation and improve overall integration with legacy system and processes.

Growing cities around the world are setting good examples on well adoption and integration of electric bus fleet. Shenzhen in China is one such city which has successfully transitioned to 100% electric bus fleet with total fleet size of some 16,359 buses between three operators, and different business model variants.Hongkong has adopted superconductor electric buses. Santiago, de Chile is home to the world’s largest pure electric bus fleet of some 700 outside of China, with strong private sector participation. Bogota is another good case study for high 2,000 e-Buses procurement.

This e-Mobilogues’ Webinar,will bring global experts sharing their experiences and case studies from South Asia and Latin America with discussion on improving overall adoption and integration of e-Buses. The discussion will cover following,

1. What supportive policies can enable smooth transition into electric bus fleet in public transportation?
2. What business models and structuring to better enforce co-operation and productivity between STU (or Transport Authority), OEM, Private Operator, and Batteries and Charging Infra Provider?
3. How to better engage private sector participation in capex heavy e-Bus eco system?
4. What learnings drawn from current procurement and deployments to go for bigger next planning and procurement of e-Buses?
5. How best to drive integration of e-Buses in mixed fleet legacy systems?
6. How planned Training and Capacity building can improve e-Bus utilization and overall ROI?

e-Buses Operations and Monitoring: Smart Planning, Scheduling and Charging

India has seen some 600+ e-Buses pilot deployment in last 2 years with another 5,000+ expected in next 2-3 years. These first deployments in many of the STUs are helping establish some performance benchmarks to evaluate e-Buses further scale-up. The fuel cost opex reduction from e-Buses by approx. 70% is getting appreciated, but still there remains many other hurdles to overcome to fully establish lower TCO advantage of e-Buses and hassle-free operations. One strong most area of improvement is Operations and Monitoring of e-Buses, which is daily lifeline for maintaining healthy and viable fleet, post the procurement and Charging infrastructure setup is completed.

Most Depots having e-Bus fleet today are also having much bigger ICE bus fleet with established legacy systems and processes.e-Buses systematic planning, daily scheduling and charging operations are not well coordinated for efficient operations. The selected routes for e-Buses are not checked for energy kWh consumption in different hours of the day under different city loading conditions and showing huge variations. The schedules are not prepared keeping in mind these SOC/range variations in one full-charge and need for intermittent charging time (with given chargers’ locations and availability). This is resulting into high number of stand-by e-Buses at Depot to service schedules while returning e-Buses are put on-charge, leading to lower kms/day utilization of e-Buses relative to ICEs.

Most monitoring is done through manual logs and there is not strong data analytics and control to improve overall performance, utilization and costs. The multi-charger operations throughout the day are not auto monitored and controlled for optimal peak power management and overall cost of electricity.

There is strong need for Operators and STUs to improve Monitoring and Controls of e-Bus daily Operations for deriving best performance possible with already procured costly assets, and fully realise e-Bus advantages.

The 3^rd Webinar under the e-Mobilogues series brings global practitioners, who will share their experiences and best practices around improving e-Bus Operations and Monitoring, with special focus on Planning, Scheduling and Charging. This Webinar will help understand and answer following top questions:

1. What key differences in Planning and Scheduling of e-Buses compared to conventionalICE buses, and how best to undertake it?
2. Once e-Buses procurement and charging infrastructure setup completed, what set of analysis and inputs to be used for routes selection and developing daily schedules for achieving higher kms per day e-Bus utilization?
3. What smart monitoring and charging elements can bring useful control for overall healthy and optimal e-Bus, batteries and charging performance?
4. What learnings to draw from current pilot deployments to 1) improve current e-Bus operations and ROI and 2) improved next planning and procurement of e-Buses?

e-Bus Adoption and Integration: Lessons from Europe and the Middle East

Worldwide, public transport systems run predominantly on fossil fuels, leading to increased carbon emissions, growing concerns over urban air quality and contributing to growing high fuel imports. The clean public transportation, especially transition to the electric bus (or e-Bus), is expected to not only help reduce carbon emission/footprint but also save fuel. It also addresses the issue of congestion on roads by promoting shared mobility. One of the studies estimates the electric bus market to increase from 137 thousand units in 2019 to 935 thousand units by 2027.

India is reported to have 350+ e-Buses plying on roads as of 2019, contributing ~0.2% to the State Transport Undertakings (STUs) fleet of ~1,36,000 buses. These early deployments are supported through the combination of subsidies from the Centre (FAME-I) and State. The Government has sanctioned 5000+ e-Buses in 64 cities for intracity and intercity operations over the next 3 years. However, there are still several barriers that are holding back STUs in India for more aggressive adoption, including – high upfront cost; technology apprehension; limited end of life performance data available; lack of debt financing; limited experience of OEMs suppliers in India; limited Operators (outside e-Bus OEMs) to run and manage e-Buses for STUs; evolving e-Bus contracting models; limited exposure to e-buses planning, procurement, operations & maintenance, charging infra setup and operations, integration with legacy fleet; and others.

This webinar, 2nd in the e-Mobilogues series, will bring global experts sharing their experiences from Europe and the Middle East and answer the following questions:

• How has been their experience in e-Bus deployments/ early assessments and with what benefits?
• What global best practices can be adopted by Indian STUs/ Transport Authorities for e-buses induction and integration?
• What planning/ decision matrix support is being provided to Transport Officials/ Government in overall e-Bus Strategy?
• What considerations for Cities/ STUs to procure and integrate e-buses appropriately?

Basics of e Buses The Relevance and Possibilities

India is witnessing rapid urbanization which has led to a tremendous increase in demand for transport and other basic services. By 2025, 46% of Indians will live in cities with more than 1 million people, and by 2030, the number of cities with populations of more than 1 million will grow from 42 to 68. With the rising urban population, cities are preparing themselves to respond to the emerging demand for transportation and are learning to make it more robust and resilient. City buses are the backbone of public transport, and its electrification can help cities to make it more sustainable and greener. The e-Buses can help cities to address the issues of city-level pollution, GHG emission, and improving the Air Quality Index (AQI). To give a further push to clean mobility in public transportation, the Department of Heavy Industry has approved the sanction of 5595 electric buses to 64 Cities / State Govt. Entities /STUs for intra-city and intercity operation under FAME India scheme phase II. The e-Buses are emerging as a strong option for green, and sustainable mobility and cities are proactive to switch towards it. The resilient transition of ICE buses to e-Buses required knowledge and awareness at all level of stakeholders to create a positive and supportive ecosystem. This was the first webinar of the series ‘e-mobilogues- Shifting the Gears: Towards Electric Buses’. It is a joint initiative of GIZ under the SMART-SUT project along with pManifold Business Solutions. The webinar series will have industry experts sharing their experiences and insights on national and state-level EV policies, current practices, national and international case studies, and lessons learned during E-bus adoption.

This first webinar answers the following questions:

a) Why there is need of e-Buses in India and its overall benefits (environmental, social, economic)?

b) What are the different components of e-Buses?

c) What are the different battery models and charging options for e-Buses?

d) What are the different operation models for e-Buses and leading technology providers?

Electric 2 Wheeler Battery Swapping Rise in Commercial Fleet

India is the biggest 2W market in the world (FY 2018-19 =highest 2W sale of 21MM units). This boom is supported by an increase in purchase capacity, changed perception around mobility, a rising number of female riders & increased demand from the semi-urban area. E-commerce delivery using 2Ws has grown notably with players like Zomato, Swiggy and others. 2W rental/taxi services is another fast-rising segment with players like Ola Bike, Uber Moto, Bounce, Vogo, Yulu.

High electrification of mobility will further open the mass individual electric 2W segment in India. Strong economics of e-2W will be single most basis for the commercial fleet operator for the transition. The standalone fixed battery system in e-2Ws offer lower TCO compared to ICEs, but existing limited financing options make high initial cost barrier. Waiting time for charging and struggle for parking spaces are other challenges in adoption.

Battery swap model has seen success in the e-3W fleet application in India and the same can be extended to the e-2W commercial fleet. It offers the benefit of

• Lower upfront capex cost without battery
• No wait time for charging as charged batteries can be easily swapped at swapping station
• Better organization of lower cost and systematic charging at back-end bulk charging stations for best battery health
• Lower TCO than a fixed battery system

The OEMs will remarkably benefit from this fleet adoption as they can offer similar products like detachable battery system, separate battery financing etc. for high uptake in the individual segment.

The webinar has answered below questions:

1. What is the economics of e-2W battery swap system Vs fixed battery system?
2. What operational & business models for e-2W battery swap system in commercial fleet, & their pros-cons?
3. How OEMs are gearing up to support fast-rising e-2W commercial fleet segment?
4. How to pursue battery standardization & build right consensus in industry/policymakers?
5. What innovations on battery swapping, analytics & commercial fleet management for high traceability & ROI?

ICA Webinar Series 2020 | e Bus Planning and Overall System Optimization: India Landscape

India has a target of some 5,500+ e-Buses procured under GOI FAME-II initiative, with a max public fleet size of 300 nos. of e-Buses with a single STU. This will form some 3% mix of overall STU ICE fleet nos. today. With this deployment under FAME-II, India will become the second largest country with such a big e-Bus fleet. With this successful adoption and integration, India will be targeting a 100% e-bus mix in new procurement before 2030.

Most of the procurement and deployment today is planned for overnight Depot charging requiring large battery sizes to support ~200 km/day trip length (though there are known used cases where intermittent charging is carried at Depot only). FAME-II supported e-Buses tenders are Gross Cost Contract (GCC) based and Operator attract penalties for missing operational SLAs. Most Operators are learning in a hard way by paying penalties various e-Bus related performance issues, which they didn’t plan for real STU driving conditions including

1. Real AC loads due to door open/close and different weather conditions
2. Road traffic and congestion’s, resulting into surprise range reduction (not much regenerative braking contribution)
3. Significant range deviations from different drivers
4. Battery degradation and aging
5. Charging time deviations over specs, etc.

These issues will grow further with an increasing % mix of e-Buses in the fleet. Each route performance can be different, and hence broad generalization with simple estimations can lead to erroneous planning and bad taste.

It is important that Indian OEMs, Operators and STUs take up systematic planning much before procurement and learn to collaborate well with each other for best results.

With this view, this Webinar attempted to find answers to below top questions:

• How e-Bus performance can vary on different routes, and why route-specific modeling and planning is important?
• What important e-Bus, battery and charger characteristics, coupled with STU route timetables and sensitivities are important to estimate close to real e-Bus performance?
• How to find the best configurations of e-Bus and charger sizes and numbers and optimize Capex, Opex, and ROI and meet performance SLAs?
• How to account for battery performance and sensitivities to the overall estimation of TCO economics for bidding?
• What pros and cons of different charging methods and potential investment optimization opportunities?
• What reserve e-bus capacity will be required to handle SLAs management?

Panelists: M Narayanan Sankar, Co-founder, and Director, Microgrid Labs (MGL); Mr Amegh Gopinath, Technical Expert, SMAR- SUT Project, GIZ and Mr Rahul Bagdia, MD, pManifold business Solutions

Retrofitting ICEs into EVs – Economics vs Performance for high adoption in India

Mobility is changing rapidly, and electric vehicles are proliferating globally. Government has formulated policy, infrastructure and business models for faster adoption of EVs. The uptake of privately owned EVs is encouraged while business models for charging stations vary, as they are deployed or operated by a range of players – public agencies, OEMs, energy companies etc. Converting existing petrol/diesel vehicles into pure electric vehicles reduces emissions up to 50%. It is impossible to ban ICE vehicle outright with EVs coming into picture.

This is where the importance of Retrofitting EVs comes in. Retrofitting ICE 2Ws, 3Ws and 4Ws into EVs has picked up well in India. EV Retrofit is supplementary to new EV production. Lower barrier to entry compared to new vehicle production due to clarity on technology landscape and certification requirements from ARAI. The engine and rest of the drive train components constituting power unit of conventional car can be replaced with simple motor-controller and battery unit. The retrofitted electric vehicle will have approx. 20 moving parts only as compare to conventional car having ~ 2000 moving parts. While the idea of speedy conversion for old car to run on electricity is appealing, there are numerous challenges involved like lack of indigenous technology, low availability of customized EV components, expensive pricing of EVs, lack of awareness among customers.

Retrofitting is important for the nation as it can help India take a leadership position in the automotive industry globally. Fuel price per capita is very high for India presently, it can be reduced with retrofitting/EVs coming into picture. It will help companies reduce carbon footprint. This webinar answers below questions regarding economics and performance of retrofitted vehicles for high adoption in India,

1. How Indian customers find the proposition of retrofitted hybrid or pure EVs? What cost savings and efficiencies over new vehicles?
2. What policy support to authorize retrofitted EVs for any incentives?
3. What EV market retrofitting can capture?
4. What technical and economic viability of electric vehicle retrofitting in India?
5. What challenges in retrofitting 2W/3W/4W/ Buses?
6. Is India prepared for this today or it will take another few years for this change? What should be the timelines for the change?
7. Whose responsibility should be retrofitting? Customer / OEM / third party? Can we make retrofitting centers in India?

Speakers  

This webinar brings experts to share their experience on following topics:

• EV charging and connectors standards India can commit and develop for AC and DC charging
• Vehicle design and manufacturing considerations to select a charging standard and appropriate charging connector
• Cost economics for charging connectors, ancillaries and typical product development to the mass production cycle

India is aiming Big for its EV adoption roadmap, with some earlier Govt. targets suggesting 100% new sales to be EVs across vehicle segments by 2030. This would make some 30%+ vehicles on-road electric (approx. 200+ million EVs) in India by 2030, requiring some 50 million charging points, of which 90% shall be home charging.

Globally, there are more than 2 million EV cars today, with China, Europe, Japan and the USA having current EVs car share of around 1.37%, 1.74%, 0.59% and 0.91% of total stock.

India has taken similar pathway of defining its own custom EV charging standards, called Bharat Chargers AC-001 (240V, 15A, 3.3kW, IEC 60309 connector) and DC-001 (<100V, 200A, 15kW, GB/T 20234 connector) for lower voltage (<120V) electric powertrain architecture. It is in-process to define further standards for both AC and DC charging for medium and higher voltage vehicle segments.

Most industry stakeholders are aligned with India defining its custom charging standards that shall allow lower costs, flexible communications, and easy interoperability for EV charging. A recent report from CEA made some recommendations on Charging standards. Indian OEMs for electric vehicles, chargers, batteries have come a long way in their product development, testing and deployment of EVs and chargers.

A right charging standard definition at country level with right connector selection and this doing it sooner can help India send a strong signal to all players to further speed up their efforts and align with its all EVs goal.

Speakers  

Electric 3-Wheeler Fleet: New Emerging Market Segment in India

3-Wheelers (3W) form typical 1-2% of overall city vehicle stocks for most cities in India, and act as an important public mass transport mode. With increasing urbanization, more focus on Transit Orient Development (TOD) and strengthening public transit systems including new Metro rails etc. the importance of 3Ws for first and last mile have further increased.

Current popular variants of 3Ws are those running on petrol, diesel, CNG and electric via lead acid batteries. Current version of lead acid e-Rickshaws serves better economics compared to ICE versions, but have lower speed limits, and also pose environmental challenges (arising from lead recycling).

The new Lithium Ion Batteries (LIB) run e-Rickshaws have advantage of 1) atleast 50% lower battery weight 2) longer battery life 3) fast charging option 4) lower battery degradation 5) higher mileage (kms/day) allowing more income opportunity 6) higher performance in terms of top-speed, acceleration etc. 7) and lower total cost of ownership (TCO). LIB e-3Ws also comes with higher speed options, usually called e-Autos.

There are emerging new players who are taking up 3W Aggregator roles, including that for e-3Ws. While some doing pure app based demand and supply match making, there are some who getting into end-to-end ownership of assets and full fledge charging eco-system, including having drivers on-rolls.

Technology evolution is making further new variants like battery swapping e-Rickshaws and e-Autos reality, and providing option to split overall capital investment separately with an Energy Operator. This shall allow bring better design focus on the vehicle itself and likely 3Ws will no more be yellow-black-green boxes, but more jazzy and comfortable to attract high adoption.

This Webinar topic was focused on:

• New product, technology, business model, policy and financing innovations in operating electric 3-Wheeler Fleet (including battery swapping)
• Case study of operating e-3W fleet in India – opportunity, challenges and results
• What transition pathways and interventions required to move to cleaner e-3W adoption

Date and Time: On Wednesday 20th June 2018, 16:00 to 17:45 IST

Power Requirement for EV Charging Stations and Impact on Grid for High Scale Adoption

Rahul Bagdia from pManifold was Speaker for APQI organised Webinar “Power Requirement for EV Charging Stations and Impact on Grid for High Scale Adoption”. pManifold is also NSN Partner to APQI and believe and support improving PQ ecosystem in India. This excerpt is taken from APQI website, and is also available at APQI website.

Topic Background

Over the past few years, Electric vehicles have become a very important part of the automotive industry as we try to look for a future that uses clean energy. Electric vehicles introduce a new concept of benefiting from electricity as the economic clean transportation technology. A lot of research and development has taken place in this field to improve the existing technology and to develop efficient ones.

This continued emphasis on research and development has resulted in great improvements in the technology of EVs. The National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2020, notified by the Department of Heavy Industry, Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, GoI seeks to enhance national energy security, mitigate adverse environmental impacts from road transport vehicles and boost domestic manufacturing capabilities for Electric Vehicles (EVs).

However, due to the effects of EVs on power sector and the electric network operation, utilities need to be concerned about reliable and safe operation of the network in presence of EVs. Electric vehicles have uncertain penetration in electric grids due to uncertainties in charging and discharging patterns.

This uncertainty makes it difficult to accurately assess the effects on local distribution network. Extra electrical loads due to uncoordinated charging of electric vehicles has different impacts on the peak load management. The distribution & transmission capacity will need adequate augmentation with penetration of EV chargers, for which the discoms shall require special planning and interventions.

EV chargers will often introduce power quality (PQ) issues within distribution circuits, which can have detrimental effects on system components. PQ encompasses several effects such as harmonic distortion, DC offset, phase imbalance, and voltage deviations, among others in myriad ways.

This webinar brings experts from the field of service provider/utility and technical consultant to share their experiences on the following topics:

• Power requirement for EV charging stations in India to maintain power quality in the network
• Impact of EV charging stations on grid components (specially transformers, being the most vulnerable)
• International best practices that can be undertaken by India for EV promotion and integration

Presentation coverage by Rahul Bagdia

• What are the different technologies used for EV Charging?
• What are the implication on grid for size of charging stations and different vehicle segments?
• What are different regulations and policies around power supply to the charging stations?
• What impact of EV load do you foresee on the overall grid? Any caution notes for Indian Discoms for grid integration?
• How can DISCOM use electric vehicle adoption to generate revenue? Any business model?

The full webinar presentation and recording can also be downloaded from APQI website.