Pune-based startup Vayve Mobility is launching India’s first solar-powered electric car Eva in the market in 2024, with deliveries set to begin in the middle of the year. The car contains 150 watt solar panels on the sunroof that can give it 10-12 km of range everyday — or 3,000 km a year — in addition to the power from the 14kWH battery that can fuel a drive of 250km.
“Over the last few years, there has been a significant development in photovoltaics. Efficiency has increased while the weight and cost have gone down. We have managed to hit the sweet spot between the weight of the car (550 kg) and the size of the solar panel. An Indian customer’s personal vehicle travels 30 km a day on an average. So, even if you’re getting 10 km per day from solar, then that’s 30 per cent of your commute just from solar,” says Nilesh Bajaj, Chief Executive Officer of Vayve.
While India is focussed on increasing the number of EVs, as evident from the recent Union Budget, the sector is suffering from a slow development of supportive infrastructure.
Vilas Deshpande is the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Saurabh Mehta, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), and Ankita Jain, the programme manager of Vayve that is focused on urban mobility. Eva is an early entrant in the micro mobility or mini mobility segment and answers to the needs of commuters who have to battle busy traffic, narrow roads and scarcity of parking spaces while going about their daily needs. Hence, the fastest it can go is 70 kmph.
“We had a very fundamental question when we were working on Eva, ie; do you really need a big car when you are travelling everyday between your home and office, dropping kids to school or just going to a shopping mall? Statistics do not support that we are travelling with our cars on full capacity. The average occupancy of a vehicle in India is less than 1.5,” says Bajaj.
Eva is designed to accommodate two adults and a child and “bring back the joy of city driving”.
“Eva is designed to be agile, with a narrow body and wide visibility. It will be easy to manoeuvre and park. It will take only half the width of a regular car. With a quick pick-up (0-40 kmph in five seconds), Eva makes city driving peppy and fun,” according to Vayve website.
While India is focussed on increasing the number of EVs, as evident from the recent Union Budget, the sector is suffering from a slow development of supportive infrastructure. While a driver can get petrol easily at a pump, they will find it harder to find charging ports for their EVs.
“Eva boasts of a safe and reliable battery that comes with active liquid cooling, which is the most advanced form of cooling. The Lithium-ion battery in the car is thermally stable and ideal for Indian weather,” says Bajaj.
As for charging, Bajaj shares an anecdote about COO Deshpande, who returned from the US last year after spending 26 years in the US. “For the last seven years, he has been driving purely electric vehicles. He told me that he used public charging infrastructure in the past seven years in single digit times. We over-expect that we will depend on public charging infrastructure but the truth is that nobody will buy an electric vehicle unless they have access to a charging point either at home or office,” he says. The solar panel of Eva can be charged while the car is on the move as well as when it is in an open parking space. Charging the battery takes four hours at home with a regular house socket and with a DC fast charging option, it reaches 80 per cent charge in 45 minutes.