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Mumbai to Manila on electric wheels!
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- Category: Events
- Published on Friday, 10 February 2012 10:51
- Written by Tejas Joseph
- Hits: 334
An e-Cyclothon for the cause of clean mobility
Janice Valdez drove up to our doorstep a week after Auroville (where Evfuture is located) and the Pondicherry region had taken a hurricane beating on the night of 29th December 2011. The fallen trees, power lines and relief work on the roads didn't dampen her spirits. She spent a few days here and spoke to people about her journey,which had taken about three months, spanned two continents, crossed three Indian states and clocked in around 1000 kilometers of e-cycle distance.
Janice is an artist with a background in theater. Her family is of Filipino descent who came to British Columbia more than 30 years ago. She moved to Vancouver in 2001 and started 'Humanergy Coop' (HUM) in 2011 to promote the mass acceptance of clean mobility powered by human (humane!) and electrical energy. She is deeply concerned about the deteriorating quality of the environment (particularly in the developing world) due to pollution and feels that a quick transition to sustainable technologies and applications is urgent. The electric cycle for her is the perfect symbol of this synthesis between human need and environmental responsibility.
Janice set out from Vancouver in November 2011 on a historic journey on her STROMER electric cycle on a trip dramatically and tellingly named “Mumbai to Manila”. It was both a journey to promote and accomplish sustainable travel using an electric cycle as much as it was one of discovering her ancestral roots in the Phillippines. She flew into Mumbai and to her first taste of all things Indian – from crazy traffic and curious onlookers to high urban noise (and pollution) levels and spicy food. She made a lot of friends and found supporters of her cause in the most unlikely places. She then flew to Bangalore in the south from where her 'cyclothon' would formally start. Her STROMER eCycle got packed and accompanied her like a faithful pet during these transits (between pedaling) by plane and train.
From Bangalore (where she met a lot of bicycle enthusiasts) she cycled to Mysore in Karnataka before going off to Ooty in the Nilagiri hills via the scenic wildlife parks of Mudumalai and Masinagudi. The climb up to Ooty was quite a tough one, she confesses, and placed considerable stress on her STROMER ( a leading Swiss e -cycle brand), with the sharp inclines and devilish hair pins of the Nilagiri hills extracting harsh dues for the experience of climbing them. But this was amply compensated for by the beauty of the mountainscapes she pedaled through and the warm people she got to meet.
From Ooty it was on to Aleppey in Kerala via the bustling towns of Trichur and Kochi. She got to ride in a canoe in this 'Venice of south India" and met (again!) kind souls (who helped find a box for her cycle) and an air conditioning expert who was an avid cyclist.He gave up his car temporarily to show his solidarity for the cause of sustainable transportation by joining her on his bicycle for a few miles.
She packed her STROMER into The Allepey-Chennai express train and landed in Chennai for the last but one leg of her historic e-cycle trip in India in the Christmas week of 2011. Her trip to Pondicherry was delayed by a few days due to Hurricane (cyclone to us) 'Thane',amongst the strongest to have visited these parts in more than fifty years.
For us it was both wonderful and a relief to be able to talk about things (other than the cyclone and its ravages) with Janice,particularly about electric mobility and the next transportation era. We salute the spirit of individuals like her who are spearheading campaigns of awareness solely driven by personal motivation and concern. EVFuture was happy to host her for the few days she was here and has agreed to being part of the 'humanergy' network to find ways to bring clean mobility into the public domain through events and other platforms. We look forward to seeing her again soon on her next eCycle saga.
To know more about Janice Valedez,the Mumbai to Manila eCycle trip and the coming dawn of electric mobility, visit her website www.janicevaldez.com .Also visit www.humanergycoop.com to know about the policy and planning initiatives pro-green cities like Vancouver (which is aspiring to become the world's 'greenest city') take to become people and cycle friendly.
Janice invites you to join her facebook group called "humanergy- cycle our light". Become part of a new cycle in the making!
The future of Pizzas, and other EV stories!
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- Category: Indian News
- Published on Friday, 28 October 2011 09:37
- Written by Tejas Joseph
- Hits: 9472
Firewood cooked pizzas are being delivered by electric bikes in Auroville near Pondicherry.It opens possibilities for employing alternative transportation modes in food delivery businesses in Indian towns and cities.
Tanto pizzeria on the Auroville main road is a happening place. Its relaxed ambience (very Italian) and fine food make it popular with the residents of the international community of Auroville and scores of visitors and guests. People of all sorts congregate at the Tanto to eat, talk and chill.
Early this summer we (EVFuture) had a visit from Tanto's genial and voluble (markedly Italian again) head Daniel Emdin - gifted chef, one time art dealer and ardent supporter of new and environment friendly technologies. He wanted us to build an electric pizza delivery bike for Tanto . We told him that the Humvee,our customised hand made electric bike, would take time to make and cost a bit of of money. He was not in the least bit fazed and asked, instead, how much advance would we need to begin?
The Tanto order provided EVFuture with an opportunity to display the versatility of the #Humvee, capable of hauling pizzas (and other commodities) as easily as it does people.
The Tanto Humvee (as we call it) is powered by a 1000 watts rear mounted hub motor. Its sturdy suspensions (so that your pizza does not slosh and smash due to bad roads!) are a combination of a TVS type 16 (for the back) and a Bajaj fork type for the front. Its powerhouse consists of four lead acid batteries (12V, 32amps) that can give a distance of 50 kms on a full charge at a maximum speed of 50 Kms. We mounted a special battery management monitor on the handlebar to notify the rider of battery performance and power status.The vehicle had our customised all steel frame for stability and smoothness and was painted in tri colors – red,green and white – just as Daniel wanted. The back seat was cut and modified to hold a bright green fibre pizza carrier box with TANTO emblazoned boldly at the back.Tanto,we learned to our delight, means plenitude in Italian.
The Tanto Humvee was delivered in mid september and cost a total of Rs.75,000. It has already become a familiar sight on the roads in an around Auroville. Off duty hours see it charging up, plugged into the public electric vehicle charging station in the Tanto's parking lot. What is different about your pizza being delivered by someone who comes riding an electric bike, you may ask? Your genuine firewood Italian formula pizza will be the same we can assure you. Only you will not know that it has arrived till you hear your doorbell ring. Neither will you hear the delivery boy drive away after. A ghost may have come to deliver your pizza and gone for all you know. Its a super silent operation,this pizza delivery business on an electric bike! Its also emission free. And its the future.
Seeing the success of our electric pizza delivery bike for Tanto makes us think about the vast potential it holds for a transportation alternative for inner city take aways and food delivery businesses in India - one that is safe, silent, quick and non polluting. It will soon also become an economic proposition once storage technologies (batteries) mature and a public charging infrastructure gets set. While firewood pizzas will always continue to have their appeal,perhaps we can go electric when it comes to their delivery?
EVFuture is open to consulting for and building electrically powered two and three wheelers for small businesses, customised to meet specific requirements.
Call us on 0413-2622380 or write us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you are thinking electric like us.
# Look out for our exclusive feature on the Humvee - India's most advanced and versatile electric bike – on this site soon.
Crossing Thresholds
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- Category: World News
- Published on Saturday, 15 October 2011 10:33
- Written by Tejas Joseph
- Hits: 10185
Innovations that drive change need visionaries with long term views over short term gains!
The age of the blue car has arrived. The just launched 'Autolib' electric car sharing/rental program in France is an instance of how a combination of official support, novel entrepreneurial schemes and proactive citizens participation can obliterate the barriers to accepting new technologies and mindsets.
Inspired by the success of 'Velib' ,the rent-a-bicycle program that was initiated in 2007 (with the 20,000 bicycles in its pool doing millions of rented trips each year), 'Autolib' is its automobile equivalent. But it is not just another car renting program. Its uniqueness lies in two factors : a) the cars are 'blue' meaning they are based on clean technologies like electric /fuel cell and b) they are part of a pool that can be shared/ rented through an annual membership.
'Autolib' is the offspring of a rare phenomenon - a merger between visionary city governance and enlightened enterprise. Bertrand Deloe,the socialist mayor of Paris and Vincent Bollore,a billionaire investor in clean technologies, decided to partner a program that would improve the city's air quality through introducing new forms of urban mobility for short commutes. The electric car was the answer to this. However, realising that electric car technologies are yet to mature and enter the pubic domain to become ubiquitous , Autolib's promoters thought in terms of creating a public fleet of electric vehicles that could be rented. The program's uniqueness lies in the fact that this scheme can have a disruptive effect upon entrenched habits of auto use and types. And it is precisely the stage entry of such disruptions (disguised as novelties) that will pave the road eventually for the acceptance of new forms of transportation based on emerging technologies that are cleaner,non fossil fuel based,silent and quick. Over time, with increased use and acceptance, they will become provably economic too.
Autolib's economics is a slightly convoluted one and does not make sense except to its backer,Vincent Bollore,who prefers to take the long view on this. The project is going to cost him around 200 million Euros with no visible break-even point in the near future. But Vincent is hoping to foster more than just a new economic model here. He is hoping to kick start (through Autolib) a new revolution in urban transportation. The ultimate payoff for him and the city of Paris will be a mass transition to electric and other forms of clean mobility.
Autolib has a fleet strength of 66 blue cars in this first (pilot) phase that was officially commissioned on the 9th of October. The cars are made by Pininfarina of Italy (who beat out Renault and Smart for the contract) who will eventually supply 3000 of these zero emission electric vehicles to the Autolib pool. The super mini electric cars are built to go a distance of 250 Kms on a single charge and is capable of a top speed of 130 Kms. Part of Autolib's ambitious and far sighted program (and package) is to provide 1000 public electric charging stations in Paris and its surroundings for these blue cars ( and other EVs) by the end of 2012. The blue car features sophisticated electronics (but still remains simple to drive) and claims some leaps in (energy use) technology. The car is a show case (and testing lab) for regenerative braking systems that ensure efficient energy recycling and storage in its advanced lithium -metal- polymer batteries.
Apart from attempting to seed an 'electric vehicle revolution' upon the streets of Paris (and later France), the proposed business model is a novel one even if it awaits testing. Its uniqueness is based upon what Vincent and other trend watchers see as certain 'economic tangibles' .These rest on the probability that many Parisians will opt for short term renting of blue cars for intra city commutes over the stress of owning a conventional car with all the attendant problems of its care, taxes, insurance, city parking and, of course, constantly rising gasoline prices.
If it works ( as both promoter Vincent and mayor Bertrand hope ) then Autolib can be a pointer of things to come. Apart from inspiring other nations (particularly the developing economies of India and China) to replicate Autolib in their own inner- city contexts, it will be a shining example of how shared transportation systems (both public and private) based on clean technologies (electric,fuel cell etc) can help the transition to a whole new transportation paradigm; one that we sorely need in the face of growing pollution and the visible end of the fossil fuel curve.