NHEV: PURPOSE & PROGRESS
NHEV is India’s most ambitious E-mobility conversion program for National Highways and Expressways into E-Highways focused on developing an EV-centric highway ecosystem and making electric vehicles more acceptable to users through reduced capital expenditure and swift Road Side Assistance (RSA). Currently, the focus is on 500 kilometers pilot between the Jaipur-Delhi-Agra highway intending to expand up to 5000 kilometers.
The First TECH-Trial Run of 210 kilometers conducted on the Yamuna Expressway from Delhi to Agra was held between 25th November to 25th December 2020 (31 days) and attained a voluminous success over four pain areas of the industry mentioned below:
• Backup in under 30 minutes in case of EV breakdown
• 30% lesser EV prices for the fleet operators through battery subscription
• More than 30% utilization of charging stations
• Project reaches breakeven within 36-40 months.
The Second TECH-Trial run of 278 kilometers on NH-48 from Delhi to Jaipur is currently underway and focused on testing the below-mentioned parameters:
• 1 Seat fare in Electric Buses
• 1-day Electric Car hire fare
• 1 Kilometre E-Highway Upgradation cost
• 1 year Carbon credit and emission cut
THE UNION OF NHEV & V2X
The program inculcates the fundamentals of Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) and Vehicle-to-network (V2N) communication, the most crucial subsets of Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) technology. The car interacts with the road mast sensor placed about 500 meters before the charging station, informing the driver if the stop is required and informing the station about the car’s telematics. This data about the car then goes to a wired system in the station for storage and processing where accurate range and breakdown prediction are arrived at, enabling the station to timely intimate the Road Side Assistance (RSA) vehicles, reaching the user within an assured timeframe of 30 minutes. In times where pizza delivery and even ambulance services seem inexecutable within 30 minutes, this ecosystem works beautifully like a well-oiled machine to deliver this assurance.
WAY AHEAD
These developments create a sense of relaxation, convenience, and confidence in users towards the adoption of electric vehicles. Furthermore, reduced wastage of time and money during the breakdown boosts the users’ peace of mind.
NHEV LATEST UPDATES
At present, the pilot project is heading toward its 5th Working Group Meeting on 10th January 2023. The motive of this meeting is to release the Tech Trial 2 reports, announce NHEV’s 5000km expansion in states, discussions around circular financing model (AHEM), and lastly MOU and Partnership announcements.
About the author: Abhijeet Sinha is a Technocrat, currently National Program Director of Ease of Doing Business, starting from Modi’s Citizen from Accountable Governance (CAG) election campaign team in the 2014 parliamentary polls, also participated in various Pilots like IMNCI, National Population Register (NPR-CAA), UIDAI – Aadhar and also Project Director of ambitious e-highway pilot National Highway for EV (Jaipur – Delhi – Agra) with Govt of India.
