The National Highway for Electric Vehicles (NHEV) under Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) has started the tech trial run for E-vehicles on the Delhi Jaipur Expressway. The one-month tech trial run was flagged off from Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, India Gate.
The objective of this trial run is to understand the economic feasibility of the EV infrastructure along the 270 km Delhi-Jaipur highway. The first phase of this tech-trial run was conducted by NHEV last year between Delhi-Agra on Yamuna Expressway to analyze the technical feasibility of the EV infrastructure on the highway.
While flagging off the trial run from New Delhi, Mr. Abhijeet Sinha, Program Director, NHEV, said: “This is one of the landmark green initiatives in the country’s EV mobility sector. No technology can be considered successful unless it is financially and economically viable for the common people and society. This trial run will establish the viability of EVs and supporting infrastructure for the common people and help eliminate any glitches. For India to meet its target of Carbon neutrality by 2070, EVs need to become a common man’s vehicle.”
Mr. Abhijeet Sinha further elaborated: “Our previous Tech-Trial Run I on the Delhi-Agra highway covered 210 KMs, and the current Tech-Trial Run II covering 278 KMs over Delhi-Jaipur will facilitate Indian Highways to be transformed into EV-highways while testing both technical and commercial aspects over a span of 500 KMs to the satisfaction of the entire spectrum of stakeholders—Users, Operators, Investors & Government of India as a Nation.”
“The TTR-I had piloted the concerns of the Operators and the Investors when it successfully established mechanisms for 30 minutes backup for EVs, 30% lesser priced Electric Vehicles for Operators, 30% Capex utilisations of Chargers and 3 Years timeline for breakeven for investors. In the TTR-2, commencing today, NHEV aims to answer the concerns of the Users by answering questions like per person seat cost, One Day Car Renting Cost, One KM Highway Upgradation Cost and CO2 Emission Saved by one EV over one year. Other factors like the requirement of number of physical infrastructure and charging stations to support EVs efficiently and other associated requirements for safe inter-state EV transportation will also be studied during the trial run. We aim to develop not only an E-highways network but also a people-friendly network of 5000 km by 2024,” Mr. Sinha further added.
In the initial phases, NHEV is conducting the tech-trial run on 500 km highways. The tech-trial run will be conducted for 1 month with NueGo electric mobility coach from NHEV partner, GreenCell Mobility and will cover all the aspects related to the EV operation on highways. During the tech trial run, the technical, economic, environmental, and social feasibility of the EVs will be studied. A detailed report containing findings and recommendations from the tech trial run will be presented to the government for consideration before Shri Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Govt of India for inclusion of AHEM in NHAI while building future highways. The findings and experiences from these tech-trial runs will be utilized to convert 5000 km of traditional highways into E-Highway.