Oh my God, there’s water falling from the sky – and that’s never happened before! At least that’s how our civic agencies respond to this perfectly natural phenomenon, and, especially, the annual weather pattern known as the monsoon – to which they react with the same level of surprise as if our Solar System were declared to be geocentric after all.
The other puzzling phenomenon is the fact that these agencies are completely unaccountable to one and all – be it the citizens of this Banana Republic, or our high-and-mighty government that appears oblivious to anything outside of their ivory towers. The trouble is that their blinkers extend to pretty much every facet of governance. They seem to occasionally awaken from their slumber only to randomly alter the specifications that define an SUV or a small car.
On a separate note, we’ve featured two imminently usable eco-friendly machines within the pages of this issue – the Toyota Prius and Mahindra Reva e2o. The Prius is the best selling hybrid vehicle ever – with over three million units sold – largely because various governments around the world have had the foresight to provide incentives to own the car in one form or the other, while the e2o will undoubtedly go on to sell quite well in Western Europe where, once again, local and state governments, as well as cities, will subsidize ownership. The same is true for the Tesla Model S EV, which is outselling flagship models from Audi, BMW, and Mercedes in the State of California.
The Reva, despite being home grown, will unfortunately retain its novelty status on our roads because it’s simply too expensive for people to consider at full price – which, unfortunately, is the price of new technology. To its credit, though, the Delhi government does offer almost a 30% subsidy on the e2o, but even that’s not nearly enough. Here’s a car that can actually be used for the daily commute by a majority of people, and one that causes no emissions (at the tailpipe anyway). Also, crucially – and this is often overlooked – it causes no sound pollution either, since its electric drivetrain provides eerily silent motoring. The same is true for the Prius when running in EV mode.
Now, neither of these cars are going to improve the air quality in our cities single handedly, but providing incentives for ownership sends a very important message. Not only does it allow the technology to develop further by putting these machines in the hands of more people, but it also creates greater awareness for the cause. Promoting such technology just makes sense – not that rationality has much of a role to play at the policy level mind you.
On a personal level, I actually enjoyed driving these cars – so much so that I’m no longer petrified about the future of motoring. Of course, the Reva could use a few more kilowatts of battery power – I couldn’t quite get it to power-slide just yet!
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