German automotive behemoth Audi has teamed up with Nunam, a German-Indian enterprise that’s growing electrical rickshaws in India utilizing end-of-life EV batteries. It additionally intends to make use of the batteries to help within the improvement of a extra environmentally pleasant charging infrastructure, with zero-emissions throughout all the vitality lifespan as one among its fundamental targets.
“Car batteries are designed to last the life of the car. But even after their initial use in a vehicle, they still have a lot of their power,” stated Prodip Chatterjee, co-founder of Nunam, in an article by CarScoops. “For vehicles with lower range and power requirements, as well as lower overall weight, they are extremely promising. In our second-life project, we reuse batteries from electric cars in electric vehicles; you might call it electric mobility ‘lite’.”
It’s nothing new to recycle automotive batteries to be used in electrical autos. Nunam is not the primary startup to consider placing electrical energy in rickshaws, that are a well-recognized sight in India because of rising fuel costs and an insatiable demand for mobility. However, lead-acid batteries, which are not particularly power-dense and have a restricted operational life cycle, are used within the majority of electrical rickshaws and low-cost electrical scooters. They’re additionally regularly not correctly disposed of, which may have disastrous environmental implications.
Weight and effectivity apart, present e-rickshaws are typically powered by the Indian electrical grid, which incorporates quite a few coal-fired energy vegetation. Doesn’t this type of negate the entire inexperienced vitality idea? To deal with this, Nunam may also have interaction with companion firms in India to arrange sustainable charging stations that aren’t related to the Indian energy grid, so as to forestall carbon emissions. Solar panels shall be used to create electrical energy, which can then be saved in Audi batteries. Nunam’s electrical rickshaws will have the ability to cost at these stations, due to this fact eliminating emissions.
The nonprofit agency may also work to make its e-rickshaws extra accessible to ladies so as to assist them get their gadgets to market with out using brokers. “Initiatives like the one pioneered by Nunam are needed to find new use cases for e-waste—not only in India but worldwide,” stated Rüdiger Recknagel, the director of Audi’s environmental basis in the identical CarScoops writeup. “So Nunam shares its knowledge to motivate more initiatives to develop products with second-life components that can drive the eco-social revolution forward,” he concluded.
Source: www.rideapart.com
