The First All Electric Taxi Service in the USA - When Will India Follow?T

he first all electric taxi service in the USA has begun operating in the state of Oregon. Personally, I think that this would be an even more fantastic idea for India and the rest of South Asia. There are several reasons for this: 1. Distances covered in most Indian cities are shorter than those that American commuters have to travel. Electric vehicles work best at running shorter distances 2. In heavy traffic, gasoline vehicles are at their least efficient. In the stop and go traffic that is typical of Indian cities especially during working hours, electric vehicles would be a fantastically efficient option 3. I know that this is a drum that I have been beating for a while, but Indian cities are usually bathed in sunlight for more than 350 days a year. From my conversation with some Japanese solar power entrepreneurs, I understand that solar powerplants of 250 kW and larger can be profitable in less than 3 years if they get sunlight for at least 3 hours a day. The option for India would be well over that time. I would assume an average of around 7 hours a day and that includes the dark skies when there is little light during the monsoons. What better way to partially / fully charge these electric taxis than to use the abundant (and free) sunlight that falls on India instead of using imported coal or crude? 4. While I have not been to India in a long time, from what I see on the news, the trend in the country is for people to entertain themselves at malls. These days, Indian malls are also doing badly during the current economic downturn. Mall owners in India are required by law to allocate a certain number of parking spots for taxis and autorickshaws. If they were to put solar panels up on their roofs and offer a paid charging option to electric taxis, this could be an additional source of income for them. Yes, this is speculation, but they would have the experience of several projects at locations around the world like the Pecan / Mueller development in Austin TX, dozens of projects in Germany and Japan and other parts of the world to draw upon 5. India already has electric cars which are even exported as quadricycles to other parts of the world. General Motors planned to build electric cars in India some time ago on one if its miniature Chevrolet hatchback platforms. It should be fairly simple to use these already available vehicles to offer electric taxi services in India Over to the planners in Delhi. Let's see what they come up with, and, more that they are watching what is happening in the rest of the world.