Comment by bluebarbet
10 hours ago
Among all these various factors, not once do you mention the wellbeing of other people. It is not hyperbole to observe that combustion scooters are a scourge on the physical health and mental sanity of a billion Indians.
I got to bike around Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha, in India in 2017, well before this revolution. When you look at it from an outsider's perspective it looks like chaos and I went in with my typical American mindset, hustling my way through the throngs of bikes, pedestrians, mopeds, autos, dogs, and cows.
Once I fell into the natural flow of the system the experience was much more smooth. There's an organic cadence that reminded me of red blood cells bumping around inside capillaries.
I wonder how the spike in e2W use has affected that cadence.
With respect, this feels to me like romantic paternalism. As a cosseted European I spent two months crossing India a couple of years back. I travelled only by train, bus and on foot. No taxis at all, even rickshaws I mostly avoided. I experienced urban India much as average Indians experience it. Well, two months was more than enough.
I definitely didn't mean for it to come across like that, but that's how it impacted you, so there's something to what you said that I'll think about. What was your take on urban travel in India then?
Nothing much to be honest.
The occasional idiot who would zoom past everyone dangerously on their new powerful and expensive toy is replaced by the idiot who loves to show off the new found torque on their ev bike.
The only difference is before you would've heard the idiot sneaking up. Now, its a lot more silent and dangerous.
While I agree, that's a present devil meaning that it's already an accepted way of life. I'm curious how Gogoro's model of swapping batteries would fair in the denser Indian markets.
Depends region to region.
Once outside Tier 1 cities, density significantly reduces. Additionally, the Indian consumer is aspirational, and if forced to purchase a new vehicle would prefer a used car over a new 2-wheeler.
Anecdotally, in my ancestral village, my relatives preferred buying a used Maruti Suzuki for 1 Lakh (roughly $1k) instead of spending the equivalent amount on a new bike.
In the Vietnamese side of my family, everyone is ignoring the recent diktat to upgrade to electronic motorbikes for the same reason (why spend almost a year's income to purchase a vehicle when inflation for daily staples has been high)
I feel there is an opportunity for EV cars, but they face stiff competition from Kei/900-1100cc cars that cost around $4k-8k.
Sadly the wellbeing of other people is rarely a factor people take into account.
Probably 1 billion+ people in India have to prioritize their own (and their kids') well being, such as securing shelter, food, clean water, and safe transportation.
It's a luxury to be able to think about others' well being, especially for something with very slow, long term effects. It's a luxury to even be able to think about your own well being for things that have slow, long term effects.
Not a luxury, a wisdom. Often the biggest shackles are our minds.