The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Silent revolution on two wheels

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 12, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Silent revolution on two wheels

Shilpa Sebastian R.

Anil Ananthakrishna hopes his scooter will power the eco-sensitive commuter

ECO-FRIENDLY: Anil Ananthakrishna with his electric scooter. — Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

Bangalore: If you think the eco-sensitive population is looking at electric vehicles only now, think again. There was an oil crisis way back in the 1970s when the oil-producing countries nationalised petroleum companies and raised the prices.

An engineer from the R.V. College of Engineering, Anil Ananthakrishna, started designing the electric scooter during that time "when we faced the first oil crisis."

The aim, he says, was to bring out a mode of transportation that uses an alternative to fuel and one that is low in price and checks pollution. Anil went on to build different batches of vehicles for Germany, China and the U.S. "I lived abroad for 25 years as they were more receptive to my work. I was invited by the German Government to continue with designing the electric scooter. Came back to India in 2004 and am making the electric scooter here," says Anil, who is a U.S. citizen but lives in China.

He started with the scooter as he found that two-stroke vehicles were being "used by most people." He began work in the city by employing women in his company, Eko Vehicles.

He claims that in the last two years 3,500 electric scooters manufactured by his company have hit the roads in Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

These electric scooters — called Eko Cosmis-1 — are priced at Rs. 33,500 plus road taxes and the battery, and run at a speed of 40 km per hour. "Now loans are also available to buy my scooters that consume one unit of power to run 50 km. That would approximately cost Rs. 4 for the ride," announces Anil.

The 85-kilo scooter looks like a conventional vehicle but comes with a battery and "an intelligent microprocessor based speed controller that works like a regulator".

In case you need to charge your batteries during your journey, then Anil has put up Rapid Chargers in six centres in the city that work like a petrol outlet.

The six centres are in Jayanagar, Indiranagar, Brigade Road, Brunton Road, Bellary Road and Koramangala. "It will take 15 minutes to charge your battery and you can hit the road once again," adds Anil, who is the founder of the World Electric Vehicle Organisation, formed in the 1980s, which "is an active group of people who are the senior heads of the departments of Energy, Pollution Control and Alternative Sources of Transport." The battery, however, will last till the vehicle runs about 15,000 kilometres. The new battery comes at Rs. 4,000.

Now his aim is to start as many Rapid Charger centres calling them the "charge and chai shop" using people with disabilities.

Anil can be contacted on 41240814/15 and for details about his product log on to business@ekovehicle.com.

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