As part of Tech Trial Run III, the National Highways for Electric Vehicles (NHEV) flagged off electric cars, buses, and freight vehicles from Chennai to Tiruchi, on the occasion of World EV Day. This is done in a bid to understand the cost of logistics, reduce it, and also upgrade the five highways in the State into e-highways.
These trials will give a competitive analysis of diesel, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and electric (EV) vehicles, the respective fuel consumption, and cost of logistics. This will be helpful for companies that want to lease or buy them, Abhijeet Sinha, Program Director, NHEV, said.
The trial run will have 200 buses and 200 trucks that will cover 1,360 km, and the focus will be on five key routes— Tiruchi to Chennai, Tiruchi to Madurai, Coimbatore to Ulundurpet, Krishnagiri to Madurai, and Madurai to Kanniyakumari. The results of the trials will be out in a month.
“The reason for conducting the trials is that when you are going to put freight vehicles in use, you need to be cent per cent sure about the commercial equivalence among fuels, and you have to be sure about the back-end infrastructure too. Those who buy should know that if something happens to the vehicles on a highway, they get a backup within 30 minutes, with a charger and a battery,” Mr. Abhijeet said.
On the charging infrastructure along the highways, he said, “We have installed temporary charging points for the trials. The results of the trials will tell us about the number of charging points required on the highway.”
Published - September 10, 2024 12:43 am IST
