In perhaps a first, e-yAna, a two- and three-wheeler taxi aggregator, on Tuesday launched services with a fleet comprising solely electric vehicles.
G. Vijay Kumar, director (technical), e-yAna, said the company has 100 e-autorickshaws and another 100 electric two-wheelers. The operations will be in Warangal and Karimnagar. The company plans to expand to other places across the country with a fleet augmentation of 500 by 2020. He added the company has a power plant in Karimnagar of 15KW capacity and all charging stations are solar-powered. The fleet comprises three-wheelers manufactured by Kinetic Green and two-wheelers are Okinawa electric scooters.
Speaking at the launch, IT Principal Secretary Jayesh Ranjan said the government has been facing a ‘chicken or egg situation’ between electric vehicle charging infrastructure dealers and vehicle providers. “The vehicle providers are always saying that enough charging stations are not there. The charging infrastructure people are always saying that unless there are enough number of vehicles on the roads, it does not make sense to invest so much in charging infrastructure,” Mr Ranjan said as he appreciated e-yAna’s initiative of providing solar power for electric vehicle charging stations.
Mr Ranjan said Telangana is one of the first States to have released guidelines on adoption of e-vehicles and that it intends to create mobility clusters. He added Telangana was the first to develop an e-vehicle charging station tariff structure.
Salujja Firodia Motwani, founder and CEO-Kinetic Green, said the internal combustion engine has served its purpose for many years, but now, its price has been increasing. On the other hand, electric vehicles are becoming cheaper and are eco-friendly. The company is working with the Andhra Pradesh government and has supplied around 2,500 three-wheelers of an order of 7,500. Those vehicles will be linked with job opportunities to beneficiaries from the SC and ST communities.
