600km electric buses approved for Rajasthan

The Rajasthan State Road Transport Commission (RSRTC) has approved plans to induct electric buses that will run for 600km every day—the highest in India so far—between the tourist hubs of Jaipur, Udaipur and Jodhpur, and between Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. The buses will be equipped with li-ion batteries and 245kW motors, and will be manufactured in Jaipur by GreenCell Mobility and Mozev (Mytrah Mobility). This is also the first electric bus contract issued by the RSRTC as part of establishing a “green corridor” between its tourist destinations. 

India to start manufacturing supercapacitors at Kannur, Kerala

State-owned electronics firm Keltron (Kerala) has signed an MoU with Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre at Indian Space Research Organisation (VSSC/ISRO) to manufacture supercapacitors using the most advanced technology currently available. Supercapacitors have evinced a lot of interest from EV manufacturers and energy storage firms for their ability to be used in parallel with batteries and fuel cells to repeatedly discharge heavy doses of energy. This makes them useful for applications that need frequent bursts of peak power. 

They can also be re-charged within seconds. In fact, a new report suggests electric buses and light trains running on supercapacitors could be recharged in an eye-watering 20 seconds. 

California’s low-income families in wildfire-prone regions to get free battery backup systems

USA’s solar energy provider Sunrun has tied up with non-profit organisation GRID Alternatives to distribute free battery backup systems to low-income homes that fall within California’s wildfire-prone regions. While the systems may not include solar panels, the systems will be distributed at a time when California is battling its worst wildfires in decades and rolling blackouts due to the high temperatures fanning demand for air conditioners. 

The gesture is particularly timely as low-income families in areas prone to fires and power shut-offs reportedly spend up to three times as much on power bills as their wealthier counterparts. The initiative is funded by the state’s Self-Generation Incentive Programme (SGIP) Equity Resiliency Budget and comes with 10 years of free maintenance and monitoring. 

Europe expects a ‘V’ shaped recovery in BEV sales, California approves 40k EV chargers

Automakers in Europe are expecting a V-shaped recovery in car sales (a sharp rebound) owing to the rapid rise in popularity of battery electric vehicles. Hybrids, plug-in hybrids and EVs together accounted for 18% of auto sales in August, up from 7.5% last September. Registrations for EVs, in particular, have doubled in the past 10 months, while registrations for plug-in hybrids are up 4X—both in large part due to EU governments offering heavy subsidies on ‘alternative’ vehicles. 
California has approved funding worth $437 million to install nearly 40,000 EV chargers across the state to help achieve its target of putting five million zero emission vehicles on its roads by 2030. The plan is to install 50% of the chargers in low-income communities, and 30% in multi-family residences.

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