Apologies for the lack of blogging about the rickshaw project thus far… here it goes. On arriving in Delhi, our first meeting was with Dr. Sarmah and his associates Sandeep and Raghav. Sandeep runs a rickshaw manufacturing factory in Delhi, and Raghav works for an advertising and branding agency that is partnered with the rickshaw factory. Sandeep is an accomplished rickshaw designer, and along with Dr. Sarmah was very involved with the Soleckshaw solar-charged electric rickshaw program. The big idea behind Soleckshaw is to ease the load on pullers by using an electric motor and solar-charged battery to complement the traditional man-power of the job. The batteries are designed to be swapped out on the fly and are charged at a separate solar charging bank where many can be charged at once (the system does not regeneratively capture energy). Eventually, this charging station could be a part of a regular gas station.
We spent Saturday afternoon with this group, learning about and viewing the Soleckshaw prototypes and trying to absorb some lessons that were learned. The project is run by the government and has thus far produced several different electric-assist prototypes and trialed them on the streets of Delhi. Yet Soleckshaw has not thus far been able to produce a cheap, reliable electric-assist rickshaw.
One significant hurdle has been cost. The prototypes each cost around 32,000 Rs, significantly more than the 13,000 Rs for a Rickshaw Bank rickshaw. The motor, motor controller and throttle are procured together from China (except for perhaps some gearbox parts of Indian origin) at a cost after duties of 7,000 Rs. The battery, labor, and R&D costs make up the rest of the price. It is conceivable that the price could be reduced somewhat through bulk purchasing, but even the cheapest electric assist is going to cost roughly twice as much as a regular rickshaw – effectively either multiplying the daily payment of the pullers or increasing their payback period.
A second major problem with the Soleckshaw is the low power density of its batteries. Battery consumption went way up when pullers realized they didn’t have to pedal any more to move around, so the batteries drain very quickly. Sandeep added a switch (similar to a MetroPedal mechanism) to ensure the pullers still pedaled, but the battery still adds 30 lbs to the system and makes the pullers’ job significantly tougher and adds to the overall battery drain.
Perhaps the most important problem with the Soleckshaw has been reliability. Hub motors break under shock loads. Cheap motors die underwater during monsoon season. Motor controllers fill with dust. And if a small thing goes wrong with an electric rickshaw, service is more expensive and less available than for a traditional rickshaw. These rickshaws are designed to be the pullers sole source of income, so they cannot have maintenance costs that are significantly higher than other options unless puller income is increased substantially. It is possible that the solar-rickshaw-wallahs could charge a premium for their environmentally friendly service, but it is unknown how much this possibility could actually benefit them.
After much rickshaw-viewing, we concluded the afternoon with a snack at a restaurant in Chadini Chowk, where we talked a bit about the competition. Nobody has yet created a successful electric rickshaw – they are uniformly overpriced and overweight. Sandeep suggested that our group should focus on electric assist, bringing our technical expertise to bear on the problem.
A few last observations… Watching the rickshaws on the streets of Delhi, we were struck by the way they ride. With their seats aggressively slanted forward (Sandeep was a strong believer in passenger weight helping with the pedaling) the rickshaw-wallahs spend a lot of time standing on the pedals in Delhi traffic. When accelerating from a stop, they “half-pedal” or pedal a small amount forward and then quickly backstroke to stand on the pedals again. As Varun might say, they move their feet back and forth. This makes us wonder if what we have heard about the gearing being too high is actually wrong – perhaps the correct gear for a stair-stepper machine is much higher than that of a bicycle? Lastly, we were surprised at the number of these urban rickshaws that carry things, not people.
The busy streets of Delhi:
No comments:
Post a Comment