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INTERVIEW : SANKAR DAS GUPTA

posted on Nov 02, 2008 02:22PM

FE Home - Story

INTERVIEW : SANKAR DAS GUPTA

'For zero-emission transportation, battery technology is the most critical component'

Posted: Nov 03, 2008 at 2222 hrs IST
Updated: Nov 03, 2008 at 2222 hrs IST

Ontario-based Electrovaya hit headlines last week for partnering with Tata Motors and Miljobil to make batteries and electric cars in Norway. Electrovaya’s proprietary battery technology will power the venture. The company is a leader in lithium-ion polymer battery systems. In an e-mail interview with FE’s Rajiv Tikoo, Electrovaya’s chairman and CEO, Sankar Das Gupta, talks about the cutting edge battery technology and the company’s zero-emission car, Maya-300. Excerpts:

How did your partnership with Tata Motors and Miljøbil come about? Does your role go beyond supplying battery technology to other partners?

Electrovaya has been working with Miljobil for some years in developing an electric car. Recently Tata Motors announced its participation in this project and they have taken a controlling position in Miljobil. Electrovaya’s fundamental contribution is the battery technology. In an electric car, the battery technology is the enabling technology and Electrovaya is providing this technology. Miljobil has licensed our battery technology and in return Electrovaya will have equity.

Who all are you working with?

Electrovaya has been working on its award winning proprietary technology for quite some time. We have had done development work for space agencies like NASA and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). We are working with a number of partners on a wide selection of transportation vehicles, including delivery vans, electric buses, urban cars, sports utility vehicles and off-road vehicles.

The progress of the electric vehicles industry is hampered by a poor battery technology. Why is it taking so long to develop good battery technologies?

For zero-emission clean transportation, the battery technology is the critical technology. Everything else is readily available. The technology that can meet the requirements is the new generation lithium-ion battery, especially the ones that are large format, prismatic and genuine lithium-ion polymer battery. Electrovaya’s technology falls in that category. Electrovaya has nearly 150 global patents covering its technology. If the battery technology does not have the required performance, then you will not have an adequately performing electric car engine. To date, some cars have been using the lead acid battery, which is low-cost, but is very heavy and bulky and has less than 20% of the energy density of lithium-ion.

What is the potential of lithium battery? How do you rate the threat from the competition?

There is no threat to lithium-ion polymer batteries from other batteries such as lead acid, nickel metal hydride or nickel cadmium. This is the only technology that makes sense. Hydrogen/fuel cells are extremely well funded...

but will not make it. Cheap petrol or biofuels is a threat, but scarcity of these fuels is a worry.

The world’s focus was on hydrogen/ fuel cell and the planet spent over $20 billion plus to develop this technology, but this technology has failed to produce any useful results. The lithium battery focus is new.

Do falling crude prices mean that global interest in battery technology may come down? Will the financial meltdown put off investors?

The costs for internal combustion engines are very large in addition to the pure cost of petroleum crude. Thinking population/policymakers/governments will factor in costs of healthcare, air pollution, climate change into the cost of crude.

What’s the progress on Maya-300? How does this zero-emission car score over the competition?

It is designed initially for the US market and for urban transportation (city car). Its advantages include long range (200 km or more) because of our polymer batteries, low cost of driving (operating costs reduced by 80%) and pollution free.

Are you upbeat about the future?

The energy transportation industry is the world’s largest with a size of over $10 trillion. It has to change. Mankind and the planet have no other choice. Burning 85 million barrels of oil daily to drive 900 million vehicles is insane. Future generations will look at us as a primitive culture that burnt this non-renewable resource just to extract its heat and messed up people’s health, ushered in climate change and generated hostilities....