Of cars, air pollution and electric vehicle (EV)


Sometime back, Shirish Sambre, a car engineer, sent me a WhatsApp note that the Government should consider installing electric vehicle (EV) kits for the 10-year old diesel and 15-year old petrol cars, in case these are in excellent conditions, instead of condemning them as scrap as required by National Green Tribunal (NGT), the judicial body empowered to judge the environmental cases. This suggestion is excellent. The cars will serve the purpose of environment friendly transport avoiding their journey to the heap of scraps which otherwise pollutes the land, jeopardizes the health of cleaners and becomes a disposal issue in view of limited space. This indeed set the ball rolling as I remembered the speech of Maneka Gandhi in our Institute’s auditorium on environmental pollution due to cars, many years ago. At that time, I was quite junior, earning a meagre salary, but dreaming of owning a second-hand car for the safety of my family and to fulfilling my ambition of owning one. Ms Gandhi’s speech especially related to pollution due to old cars gave me impression that she would like these second-hand car market to go away as these cars are more menace, polluting and may-be-not-road-worthy. Fortunately, I bought my first car, second-hand in 1990s. It served the purpose quite satisfactorily. The second-hand car market continues to flourish, with certification and refinancing too. But one thing that lingers in my mind is that rich elite class that can afford to buy new cars at regular interval does not get its conscience pricked, every time it sells old car adding to the heap of second-hand vehicles, and lecturing others on the pollution. And this class has its own interest of keeping goodies for itself. It does not want others to enjoy these comforts, recycled, second-hand; giving alibi of air pollution.
As the car industry zoomed and added to the traffic congestion over the years, NGT in recent times came up with the unique solution to reduce the air pollution. It required the 10-year diesel cars and 15-year petrol cars to be scrapped.
The first person I talked about is politician and is now in the Government. And the second is the judicial institution. Both wants that air pollution should be checked by restricting use of old cars, not by decreasing total number of cars on road, indirectly helping the car industry to remain in high turnover state.
Role of NGT in using the blanket ban on the 10-year old diesel and the 15-year old petrol cars is quite intriguing to me. How did it decide the longevity of cars? I have a 1198 cc car which is 7-year old and has ran for only 35,000 km. In the next 8 years, I don’t think of its exceeding cumulative mileage of more than 75,000 km. It will be just fine even later, as it is maintained well. Normally, car engines don’t give away even after 1,50,000 km. Yet, at the end of 15-year period, my car will have to be scrapped. While buying the car, I was given a warranty of engine that combined usage in terms of mileage and length of use. But for NGT, mileage of car run or for that matter car’s condition is of no import. And it all boils down as to whom justice is done.


Comments

  1. Shirish27 July 2019 at 08:38

    This concept is under active implementation by some firm in Pune. They are retrofitting EV kit on older petrol engine cars. Your article is most appropriate n just.👍👌

    ReplyDelete

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