NHEV begins Delhi-Jaipur electric highway trials on World EV Day 2022

The National Highway for Electric Vehicles (NHEV) began the technical trial run for E-vehicles on the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway as part of the Ease of Doing Business project. Ashwini Kumar Choubey, India's Minister of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change, set off the one-month technological trial run from India Gate in the nation's capital. This test drive intends to determine the EV infrastructure's economic viability along the 270-kilometer highway between Delhi and Jaipur. NHEV carried out the first stage of this technical trial run between Delhi and Agra on the Yamuna Expressway last year to evaluate the technical viability of the EV infrastructure on the highway. 

Abhijeet Sinha, Program Director, NHEV, said, "Our previous Tech-Trial Run I on the Delhi-Agra highway covered 210 kilometre, and the current Tech-Trial Run II covering 278 kilometres over Delhi-Jaipur will facilitate Indian Highways to be transformed into EV-highways while testing both technical and commercial aspects over a span of 500 kilometres to the satisfaction of the entire spectrum of stakeholders--Users, Operators, Investors & Government of India as a Nation." 

The TTR-I had piloted the concerns of the Operators and the Investors when it successfully established mechanisms for 30 minutes backup for EVs, 30 per cent lesser priced Electric Vehicles for Operators, 30 per cent Capex utilisations of Chargers, and 3 Years timeline for breakeven for investors. 

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In the TTR-2, commencing on Friday, NHEV aims to answer the concerns of the users by answering questions like One Person Seat Cost, One Day Car Renting Cost, One KM Highway Upgradation Cost, and CO2 Emission Saved by one EV over one year. Other factors like the requirement of a number of physical infrastructures and charging stations to support EVs efficiently and other associated requirements for safe inter-state EV transportation will also be studied during the trial run. 

"We aim to develop not only an E-highways network but also a people-friendly network of 5000 km by 2024," Sinha further added. In the initial phases, NHEV conducts the tech-trial run on 500 km highways. The tech-trial run will be conducted for one month with a NueGo electric mobility coach from NHEV partner Green Cell Mobility and will cover all the aspects related to the EV operation on highways. During the tech trial run, the technical, economic, environmental, and social feasibility of the EVs will be studied. 

A detailed report containing findings and recommendations from the tech trial run will be presented to the government for consideration before Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Govt of India, for inclusion of AHEM in NHAI while building future highways. The findings and experiences from these tech-trial runs will be utilised to convert 5000 km of traditional highways into E-Highway. 

(With inputs from ANI)