Abstract:

The growing environmental consciousness and seeing the adverse effects of climate change, the governments in India are supporting initiatives for development of eco-friendly mobility solutions including electric vehicles. To offset the disadvantages of electric vehicles regarding range, weight and charging time, efforts have to be made to orient the use of electric vehicles to niche situations and niche markets where these limitations can be leveraged by design. Confined spaces like airports, industrial campuses, gated communities lend themselves easily to vehicle electrification. When the technology does not offer major physical constraints as in electric vehicles in comparison to the traditional vehicles, design criteria will have to be predominantly use oriented - psycho-physiological, cultural, contextual and environmental. The physiognomy / aesthetics of electric vehicles can be and should be quite different from what we see today in cars or hybrid vehicles to depict the uniqueness of this breed of products.