So every major automaker has announced plans to build lithium-ion battery giga factories. Tesla, Volkswagen, BYD, Ford, and others have plans to build giant gigafactories. In India Ola electric and the Tata group have plans to make massive plants and manufacture these cells at a large scale, the aim of building these huge factories at an immense scale is to reduce prices.

Problems with Lithium Ion Batteries

But lithium has a fundamental problem demand for the element is so great that applications including electric vehicles portable electronic devices and stationary energy storage units that lithium mining companies are struggling to keep up. In addition, about 90 % of the world's supply of lithium is controlled by Chinese companies the world needs to do something about this and yes changes are happening to solve the problem.

Let's dive straight into the prices of lithium. Lithium has gone to an insane level, the CEO of Tesla Elon Musk tweeted in April that tesla might have to get into the mining and refining directly to affect it at scale unless costs improve there is no shortage of the element itself as lithium is almost everywhere on earth but the pace of extraction and refinement is very slow. Musk pointed to data from the information service world statistics showing that the price of lithium hydroxide had risen to $78,032 per metric ton from merely 6800 per ton in 2019. As he says there is a lot of lithium last year the world mined a hundred thousand metric tons of lithium for use in consumer electronics and electric vehicles the world's usable reserves are around 14 million metric tons while the proven reserves amount to around 62 million tons. So there is a lot of lithium out there even if we continue to use lithium-ion batteries for the next 20 years but the mining industry cannot keep up with the demand.

Most promising Alternative Sodium-Ion batteries

So the alternative is to manufacture batteries based on sodium chemistry but multiple automakers are seeking a secure supply chain for battery materials. The big issue with sodium-ion batteries is that they can store only about 2/3rd of the energy of lithium-ion batteries of equivalent size. But the energy density is steadily increasing and they are reaching the levels which are found in lithium-ion phosphate batteries which are the safest kind of lithium-ion batteries. None of the sodium ion batteries are commercial yet but serious competition for lithium could soon be on the way.

Chemistry of Sodium and Lithium

If you look at the periodic table of elements lithium and sodium are similar metals they are both alkaline metals and both have one electron in the outermost shell. Sodium is bigger and heavier than lithium they both are in the same group. Lithium right now is very expensive and sodium is quite cheap. The price of lithium hydroxide has risen to 78032 dollars per metric ton while the price of sodium hydroxide is below 800 per metric ton. 

Also, sodium is universally available so there are lots of advantages for sodium-ion batteries we have been hearing about the game-changing battery chemistry like solid-state batteries or graphene batteries, or dual carbon with carbon anode and carbon cathode batteries but those will take a little bit more time may be more than a decade to materialize in my opinion.

So the most promising chemistry is sodium ion which will go into production as early as 2023. The process to extract the raw material is around 100 times cheaper however the battery pack contains lots of other stuff that apart from the elemental lithium or sodium analyzed field that sodium ion cells will be 20 to 40 % cheaper. 

But the challenge will be to bring the technology to scale and we can expect large sodium iron gigafactories only in the mid-2020s the good part is that the manufacturing process is very similar to lithium-ion cell manufacturing, so all of these facilities can be used for either.

Benefits of Sodium Ion batteries

Apart from the cost, there is no risk of thermal runaway with sodium ion technology, in fact, with sodium ion technology you can discharge completely to 0 % and then transport them there is zero risk of them catching fire it is very safe to transport. Another benefit is low-temperature performance this is not much of a factor for India but it's good news for people using EVs in the Himalayas, you don't have to warm up the battery it works great from minus 20 degrees celsius to plus 65 degrees Celcius which is very well taken care of the entire temperature range of the subcontinent. The biggest problem with sodium iron is the gravimetric energy density is quite low it's 70 to 160 Wh/kg. 

CATL the Chinese battery behemoth has claimed to have reached that level, and the energy density is approaching that of LFP batteries. So for ultra-efficient vehicles like scooters or motorcycles LFP batteries and sodium iron can work fine.

So who are the major players in the sodium ion gain

The three major companies working on sodium ion cells are Ferradion a UK-based startup, natron energy bay area san Francisco-based startup, and CATL a huge Chinese battery behemoth. 

CATL is one of the largest battery manufacturers in the world and they announced last year about manufacturing sodium-ion batteries in 2023. 

Ferradion is a small UK startup that has been working on this technology for many years and is bought out by our very own reliance industries, which will build several gigafactories within India by 2024. And reliance is bullish on sodium ion cell technology. 

Neutron is a company based at Stanford university they have a chemistry that uses Prussian blue for both anode and cathode they can achieve an energy density of 70 watts per kilometer per kilogram, which is low but their main focus is energy storage. The life cycle is crazy they claim more than a lakh cycle on their cells while LFP cells have only around 2000 cycles if they can improve the gravimetric energy density they can be a serious player. Just imagine a scooter battery that can be used for a million kilometers it is ridiculous it will outlive the entire civilization.

CATL is claiming they will reach 200 watt-hours per kilogram which would be better than LFP cells as the Ferradion has reached 180 watts per kilogram. So there is a lot of potentials here the exciting thing is the capability for sodium-ion cells to be recyclable. You can recycle close to 90. So this is a hugely recyclable battery and this is one of the big advantages for the sodium ions. I am very excited that three large companies including Reliance and CATL are pumping money into sodium ion manufacturing, the energy density for the next three to four years may not be ideal for large cars.

But sodium ions should easily fit in electric scooters e-bikes small cars and three-wheelers and of course, grid-level energy storage, if the battery was 30 to 40 % cheaper that would reduce the cost of EVs as well, and things, have already begun to heat up. Chinese scooter startup NIU which sells electric scooters all over the world has already announced plans to launch a sodium ion-based scooter in 2023. NIU’s CEO lee yan told Chinese media that NIU wants to keep costs under control but did not specify who will manufacture the battery packs.

Reliance New Energy Solar buys Farradion

India's chairman of reliance industries Mukesh Ambani said we welcome Ferradion and its experienced team to the reliance family. This will further strengthen and build upon our ambition to create one of the most advanced and integrated new energy ecosystems to put India at the forefront of leading battery technologies. 

The sodium ion technology developed by Ferradion provides a globally leading energy storage and safely sustainable battery solution that provides high energy density and is significantly cost-competitive. 

Applications of Sodium-Ion Batteries

In addition, it has wide use applications from mobility to grid-scale storage. Sodium ions can be the real deal in this technology compared to all the other chemistries in the coming years which of course are brilliant. This decade sodium ion cells will go hand in hand with LFP cells and turbocharge the EV revolution.

 Electric vehicles have spread their charisma all over the world. Tesla and Elon Musk fans are enthusiastic about EVs on various social media platforms. And now the Indian car makers are also shifting towards electric vehicles.

In the era of EVs, our Road and Transport Minister has introduced Hydrogen cars. He presented these in Parliament and became part of many headlines. So, what are these Hydrogen cars? Before the mass utilization of EVs, can Hydrogen cars replace them? Let's explore this together in today's article.

History of Hydrogen Fuel

It is not the first time that Hydrogen has been used as a fuel. In the year 1937, Hydrogen was used as a fuel in the Hindenburg Aircraft. But unfortunately, it got ruptured in its flight and 35 people out of 100 died due to the arson. The aircraft was eradicated, but Hydrogen continued as a fuel NASA also uses hydrogen gas as a fuel to shift its crew and cargo from one place to another. In the year 1960, General Motors invented an Electro Van which was an FCEV. The car in which Mr. Gadkari went to the parliament was Toyota Mirai was also an FCEV. FCEV stands for Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle.

How does a Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car work?

It is very simple Hydrogen is filled in its tank and Oxygen is obtained from the surrounding air. So, there exists a fuel cell where Hydrogen and Oxygen interact and produces water, heat, and electricity. Heat escapes into the atmosphere, and water gets evaporated. And the electricity generated drives the electric motor and accelerates the car.

Benefits of Hydrogen Cars

If you think this type of EV has advantages over both normal fuel-based vehicles and electric vehicles.

It does not need to be recharged via electricity, Fill the hydrogen tank of the vehicle and travel anywhere. The advantage of FCEVs is the use of electric motors, which don't cause any type of pollution. These FCEVs don't even have the issues of Range and Charging.

A range of 250-300 Km in an electric vehicle and the charging time ranges from 6-8 hours. In FCEVs, the range is around 600 Km for this, you only have to get your hydrogen tank full which takes nearly 5 minutes There is one more problem with the EVs which is less spoken.

There is a weight-to-range ratio suppose you have an EV, a battery is installed in it, and it has a range of 100 Km. Now you want your EV to run for 200 Km then how many batteries would be required? You might be thinking of 2 but this is wrong. The battery itself has some weight that will make the EV heavier. So, two batteries won't provide a doubled range you can reach somewhere around 180 Km. The more range one thinks to increase more batteries are required It will become impossible after a certain time to install more batteries.

The Hydrogen based cars are free from all this. Just Increase the size of the tank fill more H2 gas and increase the range. Exactly like conventional fuel-based vehicles. So, the benefit of the Weight to Range ratio is provided in the Hydrogen based vehicles.

One more problem with Electric Vehicles is less taken care of is the optimum temperature for an Electric Vehicle to perform better is 21 degrees The batteries of EVs exhaust rapidly in colder regions similar to your smartphones. But there is no such issue in hydrogen-based vehicles. There are no special batteries used in FCEV to drive the car. FCEVs use hydrogen gas, acceleration depends on the burning of Hydrogen gas. If there are so many benefits, you might be thinking that these vehicles should be having a good market share.

Market Size of Hydrogen Cars?

Not at all, In the year 2021, a total of 6 Million electric vehicles were sold, but only 15000 Hydrogen based vehicles were sold. Now there are more than 1000 charging stations for electric vehicles, but there is only 1 hydrogen station in our country. Elon Musk makes a mockery of these FCEVs in Public he terms these infeasible and told them they have no future.

What are the problems with hydrogen-based vehicles which prohibit their growth?

The first problem is that these are very expensive. A normal car is available for Rs 10 Lacs, and a similar vehicle under the EVs is available at 12-13 Lacs. But the Hydrogen cars would cost you around 24 Lacs. The charging stations of electric vehicles, if cost around $50000 for their development. Then the development of a hydrogen station requires $20 Lacs. The reason is the storage if the hydrogen is stored at a high pressure a lot of expertise is required and that's why it is not at all cost-effective.

The second reason is the issue of Psychological Safety. Everybody has watched the videos of the Hindenburg Disaster. But Toyota Company is determinant They declare that these vehicles are safe, they even fired a bullet at the car to show that it does not catch fire.

But Psychologically many people doubt the safety of FCEVs. So, Safety is a major concern. If we keep the cost and safety aside but still, FCEVs have many technical disadvantages.

Hydrogen Cars vs Electric Vehicles

There is no point in comparing these with conventional fuel-based vehicles. As they are already less in demand. So, EVs which are the replacement for conventional cars must be compared with the FCEVs. To know the limitations of FCEVs. 

The first one is low energy efficiency. This whole article has been published which explains this. Let me lucidly tell you, Hydrogen gas is required to run a Hydrogen based vehicle, It will be extracted from somewhere suppose you extract it from water for an instance, take 100 Watts of electricity and supplied it in the water. 25 Watts of electricity was consumed and Hydrogen was extracted. Now you would transport this hydrogen gas It would require compression 10 Watts of electricity will be used for this. When this Hydrogen will be filled in the Vehicle and then it will react with oxygen to produce electricity. 25 Watts will be consumed in this process. So your 60 Watts of electricity has already been consumed 40 Watts of electricity is left. This means the efficiency of Hydrogen based vehicles is around 40%. If we compare it with the EVs, then EVs have an efficiency of around 80%. So this article mentions that Hydrogen should not be used in cars. Hydrogen can be used in Industries where natural gas is being used, but Hydrogen is not at all efficient for cars. 

The second one is Performance a car is picked based on good pick-up and acceleration and EVs are far ahead of FCEVs in this criteria. Also If we compare Toyota Mirai and Tesla Model 3 these two vehicles have similar costs Mirai takes around 9 seconds to reach 60 Kmph from 0 Kmph. But Tesla requires a meager 3 seconds. Mirai has a top speed of 170 Kmph And Tesla has a top speed of more than 230 Kmph. So the performance of Hydrogen cars is poor than the performance of EVs.

Environmental Concerns

The third one includes environmental concerns, Hear it carefully EVs and FCEVs seem to be environmentally friendly from the outside but Hydrogen Based vehicles emit water and EVs don't have any emissions as these have batteries. But the point is what is the primary source of energy? Cobalt which is used in the batteries of EVs comes from mining which causes environmental damage when EVs would be adopted on a large scale. Then where will the malfunctioning batteries be dumped? No one has any idea similar problems are present with the FCEVs All the Hydrogen which is made nowadays is made by burning Methane or Coal and the environmental damage caused by these is 3 times more than the damage caused by EVs.

Investments in Hydrogen Fuel

Despite all this Toyota, Hyundai, and BMW are manufacturing Hydrogen based vehicles. The reason behind this is all the issues that I have mentioned would be solved when the FCEVs would become efficient and more scalable. The Indian Government has set a target that by 2030. India will produce 5 million tons of green hydrogen every year. Gautam Adani and total energy have signed a deal of $ 50 Million to produce green hydrogen. Apart from this Tata and Ambani are also investing in green hydrogen.

What is this Green Hydrogen?

Like I told you earlier, nowadays Hydrogen is produced from methane. Green hydrogen will replace this would be produced from renewable resources. And the vehicles using hydrogen emit water. So the environmental damage caused by the vehicles based on green hydrogen would be very less when compared to the EVs. Hydrogen Fuel Cells can disrupt the market in two ways.

Where would Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles be used more?

The first is Industrial/commercial vehicles which require long ranges EVs would be ineffective as a lot of batteries would be required. Hydrogen-based vehicles can work exceptionally here. FCEV would be more powerful for heavy-duty commercial vehicles, polluting less. The second one is Industrial used cases where natural gas has been used. 

The use of hydrogen gas will make them more environmentally friendly and like today, Elon Musk makes a mockery of hydrogen-based vehicles. Similarly, people used to laugh at solar energy around 8-10 years back. But now it has developed a lot and India is not very far in solar energy.

 The world has come around to see we need to produce energy as responsibly as possible however, there is one major hurdle that we face when it comes to producing energy through renewable sources intermittently.

Can renewable energy be produced anytime energy is needed? that is a question wind and solar power cannot answer yes to, there is however a breakthrough method of generating energy that neatly solves the intermittency problem that invades wind and solar energy. This game-changing tech is Tidal Energy and is getting many players in the energy industry excited.

Why Tidal energy is 10 times better than wind and solar energy?

Wind and solar energy are great ways to generate energy they're relatively cheap and do not cause pollution unlike fossil fuel-based generating stations that produce carbon emissions moreover we can't run out of solar or wind power at least not in a billion years. However as great as wind and solar energy is they have a serious drawback, they can be affected by environmental seasonal and daily cycles that can limit their use or efficiency as such renewable energy cannot always consistently produce energy at all hours of the day, for example, you can't produce solar energy when the sun has set, this is called intermittency.

Intermittency is a big headache for energy professionals for example solar and wind farms' energy production in Europe has been known to vary between 0 to 23 and 24 gigawatts of energy respectively, during peak times. So these peak production periods provide a large share of energy however sometimes unpredictable lows are the bane of renewables compare this intermittency with the constant power output that can be generated by fossil fuel-based power plants using coal or natural gas and you will see renewable energy's Achilles heal energy production companies try to mitigate this inherent flaw with battery solutions. But this only introduces a different set of problems as you shall soon see. This is where tidal energy comes in it is renewable energy that means no damage to the environment and at the same time, it can be available all day and at any time solving the intermittency problem of wind and solar energy.

What is Tidal Energy?

Simply tidal energy is produced by the surge of ocean waters during the rise and fall of tights when the water has risen to its highest level covering much of the shore it's at high tide. When the water falls to its lowest level it's a low tide. Some lakes and rivers can also have types you can thank the sun and the moon because the two celestial bodies responsible for the rise and fall of times how the forces that cause tides are known as tidal constituents, for example, the earth's rotation is a tidal constituent but the major tidal constituent is the moon's gravitational force acting on the earth. The closer objects are the greater the gravitational forces between them and this is why the moon exerts more pull on the planet than the sun does despite being significantly smaller.

So basically the moon is constantly pulling on the earth including on land surfaces. However, land surfaces do not move that much because they are not very flexible they move not more than 55 centimeters a day. But when it comes to the ocean the pull is more dramatic because water is liquid and can respond to gravity more the moon pulls on both the side of the earth facing it and the opposite side. But the greatest force is felt on the side closest to the moon, at the center of the earth the gravitational force is zero. High and low tides come with a degree of accuracy as the earth continues to spin and tidal energy engineers simply take advantage of this phenomenon.

How does Tidal energy work?

The main maneuver is to harness the kinetic energy created from the rise and fall of ocean tides and currents or tidal flows and turn it into electricity. The larger the tidal range or the height difference between sea level at high and low tide the more power can be produced. When you want to build a tidal project there are three types that you can choose from.

Tidal Turbine

The first is the tidal turbine which is fairly straightforward it is very similar to wind turbines except that you place them below the water's surface instead of above or on land. So the water's current pushes the blades of the turbine which is connected to a generator bam you have produced electricity. Tidal turbines can produce much more electricity than wind power plants and this is because water is much denser than air meaning it will move the blades faster. However, the same water's high density also means the tidal turbines need to be much stronger than wind turbines making them more expensive to manufacture. Tidal turbines are large but they have the advantage of causing relatively little disruption to the ecosystem around them. They could cause collision damage like wind turbines however with marine life but the slow speeds of the blades mean it isn't that much of a concern.

Tidal Barrage 

The second type of tidal power project is the tidal barrage here the tidal barrages are actually low-walled dams they're constructed at tidal inlets or estuaries. They're similar to your standard hydroelectric dams because you use sluice gates to form a reservoir on one side of the barrage the barrages attach the sea floor with the top of the barrage just slightly above where the water level hits, during the highest tide you then place your tidal turbines towards the bottom of the barrage inside a tunnel, which lets water pass through the turbines are turned with the incoming and outgoing tides. during an incoming high tide, water flows over the turbines as the water rises then the water flows back through the turbines as it becomes low tide. The turbines are connected to a generator which generates electricity. While tidal barrages are the most efficient way to harvest tidal energy they're also the most costly. Engineers have to construct an entire concrete struct, which adds to the development costs. Also, the barrages have a more serious environmental impact on the surrounding ecosystem than tidal fences or turbines. You are basically building an underwater wall so fish and other sea creatures can't pass through causing a myriad of effects on the local ecosystem.

Tidal Fence

The last type of tidal energy project is the tidal fence which is like a cross between tidal barrages and tidal turbines. Here the vertical tidal fence turn styles are positioned together in what looks like a fence which is why it's called a tidal fence, instead of spinning like a propeller tidal fences spin like a turnstile. You produce electricity by using the energy from tidal currents to spin the turn-style blades which are connected to a generator. Tidal fences have vertical blades that are pushed by moving water these vertical turbines are installed together like a fence, but they don't require the large concrete structure that tidal barrages do. Usually, they'll be installed in between land masses in things like inlets and fast-moving streams they are submerged entirely underwater and have little impact on the surrounding ecosystem.

How do engineers decide if a site is suitable for locating a Tidal energy project?

The fact is that even though water covers two-thirds of the earth's surface not all the nations or regions on the earth are suitable for tidal power projects due to the specific requirements for example the difference between flood tide and herbicide must be minimum of the order of 4.6 meters or above that or the project would not be viable. The volume of water moving around during the tide or the cubature of the tidal flow also matters.

Let's say your preferred site is a place where the tide may go up and down by say around 10 meters but with a minuscule volume of water associated with it. It makes no engineering sense because there is not even energy to spin the blades you must also account for wave actions and storms because these two can be destructive so you must find a way to protect your tidal plant or find another site or you could be spending much of your budget on constructing an embankment your site must not interrupt the flow of normal shipping traffic which passes through the estuary, otherwise it will interrupt the economic cycle of the region. there's also the silt index of water in the factory. However, it is very possible to find suitable sites for tidal energy projects it's worth noting here that the first title projects did not involve electricity production but were used by our ancestors to grind grain. They came to be known as tide mills.

Where was the first Tidal Plant built?

The first modern tidal plant used for generating electricity was built in 1965 in the branch estuary in France, It was on a commercial scale and used 24 turbo generators the plant still produces electricity today from the difference between high and low tides up to 600-gigawatt hours per year evidence that tidal power projects can withstand the test of time. The power from this station is enough to power more than 50000 American homes for a year. 

The second commercial-scale tidal barrage was installed in Nova Scotia in 1982 to highlight the working of the Straflo turbine an invention by Escher Wyss of Switzerland. Despite its initial problems the plant now generates electricity with no issues the largest tidal power project in operation is located on Shiwa lake in South Korea. It has an installed capacity of 254 megawatts. However, it was more than just a power generating plant, it was created to provide reclaimed land for the nearby metropolitan area flood mitigation and secure irrigation water by converting the coastal reservoir to fresh water using a 12.7-kilometer long sea wall at Jongi bay. Let's hear what you think of tidal energy in the comments section below.

 Hydrogen Fuel cell vehicles and electric vehicles are both vehicle technologies having their advantages and disadvantages. Some people think electric vehicles are better than fuel cell vehicles while some people believe fuel cell vehicles are far better than electric vehicles.

It is no secret that electric vehicles are still a more expensive option than regular cars but if money was not a problem would you buy yourself an electric car? Is a hydrogen-powered car an even better option than the electric one that is what we are going to see further in this article? Although both these options seem to be environmentally friendly there are so many hidden factors involving that change in the whole tide of the situation except for the environment. There are a lot of key differences in how the two types of cars function and this definitely affects the usability of the car giving one a clear edge over the other. 

To find out which vehicle technology has more advantages and benefits for our mother earth, let's start a detailed analysis and comparison between these two vehicle technologies.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car how does it work?

A hydrogen fuel cell vehicle has a hydrogen tank that feeds a fuel cell with high pressured hydrogen gas that will mix with oxygen, this mix starts an electrochemical reaction that produces electricity to power the electric motor. Here the stored hydrogen gas mixing with oxygen produces electricity, this electricity is then used to power an electric motor to run a fuel cell vehicle.

Battery Electric Car how does it work?

While in an electric vehicle there is no such thing as a Fuel Cell it essentially relies on a battery that is charged up just like we charge our laptops and phones. Electric motors pull current from a rechargeable battery or any other source of electricity and once it is moving there is no chemical reaction happening either there is only an electric reaction. Electric vehicles are powered by electric motors that get current from a rechargeable battery allowing the vehicle to run.

How many Hydrogen Refueling stations are present around the world?

Till the end of 2021, there were 432 hydrogen refueling stations in the world. Europe has 177 hydrogen stations and 87 of them are in Germany, and France has 26. There are 178 hydrogen stations in Asia. 114 of them in Japan and 33 in Korea, North America has 74 hydrogen stations and most operating stations are located in California. 

What about India India’s first hydrogen fuelling station?

India India’s first hydrogen fuelling station was opened on Sunday 9 October 2005 by the former minister of petroleum and natural gas Mr. Manishankarayer. In 2015 India inaugurated its first solar-powered hydrogen fueling station located at the solar energy center near Delhi. It generates 100% green hydrogen from solar energy through an electrolyzer. Later in 2018 India oil corporation, IOC demonstrated the successful trials of India's first hydrogen fuel cell-powered bus in collaboration with Tata Motors.

How many Charging stations are available worldwide?

With more than 5 lakh public chargers china has the most charging stations available in the world, the united states have around 78,000 charging stations, Netherland has 50,000 charging stations. Whereas in India currently there are 250 charging stations operational. In 2020 central government sanctioned 2636 charging stations.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Efficiency

If we talk about Hydrogen Fuel cell vehicle efficiency, take an example 100 watts of electricity produced by a renewable source such as a wind turbine. To power, a fuel cell electric vehicle this energy has to be converted into hydrogen by an electrolysis process. Around 25 % of the electricity is automatically lost after the electrolysis process. 

So energy efficiency is reduced to 75 %. The hydrogen produced has to be compressed chilled and transported to the hydrogen station and this process is around 90 % efficient. Inside the vehicle, the hydrogen needs to be converted into electricity which is 60 % efficient. Finally, the electricity used in the motor to move the vehicle is around 95 % efficient so it's only 38 % of the original electricity which is 38 watts out of 100 watts used.

Battery Electric car Efficiency

On the other hand, electric vehicle battery efficiency with electric vehicles the energy runs on wires from the source to the car, the same 100 W of power from an electric grid lost about 5 % of efficiency and another 10 % of energy loss from charging and discharging the lithium-ion battery plus another 5 % from using the electricity to make the vehicle move. So electric vehicle batteries use 80 watts out of 100 watts. This means hydrogen fuel cell requires double the amount of energy compared to an electric vehicle.

The range covered by Hydrogen and Electric car

A Hydrogen fuel cell vehicle after a full tank can travel up to 500 km

Electric vehicles on a full charge can travel between 160 to 320 km 

Refueling Time of hydrogen vs electric car

Hydrogen vehicles have a huge advantage when compared to electric vehicles because a fuel cell car can be refueled in 5 to 10 minutes (presently Toyota Mirai), on the other hand, an electric car takes hours for a full charge. Even the tesla model S can take 1 hour for a full charge with a supercharger.

Comparing these two technologies in terms of refueling comfort, in the case of electric vehicles most EV owners prefer to charge at home. rather than visiting a charging station, EV users feel comfortable charging their vehicle at home rather than at a charging station. But in the case of hydrogen vehicles, the owners should visit a hydrogen refueling station.

Fuel costing of Hydrogen and Electric car

An FCEV uses $8 (Rs. 600) per kilogram of hydrogen fuel and the running cost of a hydrogen vehicle is about $0.08 (Rs. 6) per kilometer. So the Fuel Economy is 6 Rs/km

On the other hand, electricity tariff prices range from 0.15 per kW/hr in the world it is Rs. 11 according to Indian rupees. In India, the electricity tariff price starts from Rs. 7 so the running cost of an electric vehicle is Rs. 1.6 per kilometer. So the Fuel Economy is 1.6 Rs/Km.

Specific Energy of Hydrogen vs Gasoline vs Lithium ion

We also must not ignore the fact that the specific energy of Hydrogen is 142 MJ/kg (compared to gasoline: 46.4 MJ/kg, Lithium-ion batteries: .6 MJ/kg) which is 3x that of gasoline and 200x as compared that of lithium-ion. Thus less fuel is required to produce the same energy as lithium.

Do FCEVs or EVs create pollution? 

Both these vehicles don't produce pollution at the tailpipe but they both have the potential to produce pollution when their fuel is created the electricity will mostly come from power plants. That is the majority of cases are burning fossil fuels to produce that electricity and those fossil fuels. The hydrogen for the fuel cell vehicle will most likely be produced by electrolysis which involves passing electricity through water.

Green Hydrogen Concept

But both these vehicles have the wonderful potential to produce electricity and hydrogen from non-polluting forms the best examples are hydropower, solar power wind power, and nuclear power only then a hydrogen vehicle or an electric vehicle can be completely accepted as green.

The reality of Hydrogen vs Battery

And also statistics related to cost, as the production of hydrogen will increase, it will gradually decrease the cost. Whereas as lithium reserves will reduce, it will raise its cost, and also exploitation of lithium from the surface of the earth will result in environmental problems. Thus we should focus more on production and hydrogen storage technology than that on lithium. 

Conclusion

Electric vehicles are currently the widely accepted technology in most countries the world's electric vehicle sales near 2 million in 2021 basic charging infrastructure widely available wide choice of Sedan'sand SUVs are some of its advantages. Range constraints, slow charging batteries, and recycling difficulties are some of its disadvantages.

On the other hand Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric vehicles are at the early stages of adoption with lower environmental impact and 95 % recyclabilities are the advantages of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Very few vehicles are available expensive refueling networks are some of its disadvantages.

According to IHS Marque reports Fuel Cell vehicle sales will reach half a million vehicles per year by 2032 and as per the international energy agency, electric vehicle sales will reach 44 million vehicles per year by 2030. These vehicles will be keeping the earth a safer place to live for the next generations.

That's all the complete analysis between fuel cell vehicles and electric vehicles comment on your favorite vehicle category in the comment section below. Is it a fuel cell vehicle or an electric vehicle? 

Go green Go electric!

 Most of the mishaps with vehicles take place because the driver is unable to see objects around a vehicle in the blind spot zone. Any vehicle traveling in the blind spot is under serious threat as its presence is entirely unknown to the driver. Road collision deaths of pedestrians, cyclists, and bikers are intolerably high and amount to most deaths globally.

Introduction

With the rapid development of vehicle technology and more attention to driving safety, driver assistance systems are making driving easy and safe. With traffic accidents occurring frequently in recent years, safe driving assistance systems have become one of the hottest and most critical technologies. It can improve road transportation efficiency and decrease accidents. Blind Spot Detection Warning (BSDW) is one of the methods through which we can solve the issue.

Recently, car manufacturers have started designing blind-spot monitoring systems to avoid collisions due to blind spots. There are many blind spot systems, like radar-based, ultrasonic-based, and camera-based detection systems.

Presently in the Indian auto market, blind spot detection technology is only present in extravagance automobiles with narrow features. Yet, the majority of Indian roads consist of mid-range cars which do not have this technology. As 10-20% of the total road accidents happen due to blind spot crashes, so devising a reliable system that prevents collisions and warns the driver is a necessity of time. Here's where the proposed model solves this problem.

What is a Blind Spot in a vehicle?

A blind spot in a vehicle is an area around the vehicle that cannot be directly observed by the driver while at the controls, under existing circumstances.

Because of the vehicle's blind spot area, especially the rear spot area, and the driver's weak vision, traffic collision accidents easily occur when the driver changes lanes.

What is Blind Spot Lidar Monitoring(BLiM)?

The Blind Spot Monitor using Lidar alerts drivers of vehicles in their blind spot and the rear cross-traffic alert warns drivers of approaching vehicles when backing up. The Blind Spot Monitor enables alerting the driver to the presence of a car that might evade detection in side-view mirrors, improving conviction and helping to optimize safe operation.

Blind-Spot Lidar Monitoring and alert system that is devised to provide an early warning about the proximity of surrounding vehicles to the driver using the Lidar technology.

The presented system is highly accurate and most importantly cost-effective. Such systems are only available in the higher segment vehicles. Most mid-range cars that comprise a central component of vehicular traffic ignore these systems. Thus the system is a solution for the mid-range segment.

The objective of the project

The focus of this project is to identify the causes of automobile collisions, notably the side collision impact caused by the blind spot.

To develop a system that can accurately monitor the rear blind-spot area of the vehicle which is also affordable for normal car users.

So with this system, accidents can be avoided.

System Components

The system mainly consists of 2 parts 

1. Hardware 2. Software,

The hardware component consists of the Lidar sensor, the microcontroller & the Bluetooth module.

A lidar sensor is a light-emitting sensor. That calculates distance using Time of Flight(ToF). So here in this project, the TF Luna Lidar sensor is used which can travel distances up to 8m. It can perform steady, accurate, sensitive, and high-frequency range detection.

The second component is Arduino Uno is a microcontroller other variants of microcontroller Arduino Uno, Arduino Mega, and Arduino Nano can be used and can work perfectly having no issue with latency. But used for single-operator use.

HC-05 Bluetooth Module is an easy-to-use Bluetooth. Enabling the Arduino to exchange data with other Bluetooth devices. It works between the baud rate of 9600-115000.

And the software component consists of an application (BLiM) on which the data collected from the Lidar sensor (Distance) will be displayed and seen by the driver.

What is Lidar? How does Lidar work?

Lidar Sensor (Light + Radar) stands for Light Detection and Ranging. It means a sensor that works on the principle of light. Here we have used the TF Luna Lidar sensor which is a single point ranging sensor that is it is having FOV of 3 degrees. TF Luna Sensor emits infrared waves for detecting objects. It uses the Time of Flight Principle. It calculates time by measuring the phase difference between the original pulse and the reflected pulse and uses that time to get the relative distance.

𝑫 = 𝒄/𝟐  ∗  𝜟𝝋/𝟐𝝅𝒇 

where,

c = Speed of Light

f = Signal Frequency

Δφ = Phase Difference.

The detection range of TF Luna is up to 8m.

Now, why didn't we use an ultrasonic sensor over lidar in this project because,

Ultrasonic-based systems are relatively inexpensive, while their detection range tends to be fairly short, and they take more time to detect cars when in use, their resolution is also quite low.

Speed of Light = c = 3x108 m/s

Speed of Sound = 343.2 m/s

Disadvantages of Ultrasonic sensor:

• Air temperature has the greatest impact on the measuring accuracy of an ultrasonic sensor.
• Noise can also affect the performance
• Dust rain snow

Overall Look of the system:

The hardware devices are on the left with a wired connection and on the right is the software BLiM opened in Mobile which is connected wirelessly. 

On the left In the hardware section. There is a box containing Arduino and HC-05. Beside it is the Lidar(TF Luna) sensor and connecting to it there is a power source.

All this hardware is having wired connection. But the BliM app connects it wirelessly via Bluetooth and the output can be displayed.

Working on the system

If we go in-depth into the topic then thought must have appeared in the mind how will this system work?

The system starts when the car running above 20 kph with the detection of the vehicle in the blind spot zone by a LIDAR sensor, detecting the car sends the signal to the microcontroller. Further, this data is sent from the Arduino microcontroller wirelessly to the application (BLiM) on which the alert is shown via the HC-05 Bluetooth module.

The data is then processed and displayed on the BLiM App and displayed in front of the driver. If the approaching is at a critical distance then the driver will get an alert sound will be activated and the distance will be shown in red on the distance dial.

Working on App BLiM

The App comes into the picture when data is received. The App is named BliM(Blindspot Lidar monitoring). Having a clean user interface. When we enter the Application We come across the Start interface where user can set their minimum, moderate and maximum values as per their convenience. Where the minimum distance is critical and rest is safe.

Then connection Bluetooth is done connecting with hardware so that we can receive the data.  Then we land on the main interface. Here there are two main components the color dial which is having red, green, and blue and the other is the real-time distance.  The red color is for minimum distance blue is moderate and green is maximum safe.

Now whenever the car is approaching our car the Lidar sensor placed will detect the range of the approaching car. And send it to App. Then the App segregates whether the distance is in minimum moderate or maximum if it is minimum then it is considered as a critical range and in that case, the color dial will be red with the distance highlighted in red and a chime will sound (beeping) will be activated and as the projected car goes far away (outside the blindspot area) then the color on the dial will be green or blue and the buzzer will stop Beeping.

What if the car is in the critical range (Red) for a long time?

If the car is in the critical range (Red) for a long time then there is an off button on the header of the app. By pressing it in the Red area, the buzzer will stop for an instant and it will automatically turn ‘ON’ when the distance will be i.e. when it reaches the green and blue areas. The buzzer sound stops and the driver will be less irritated.

The reason behind making the app was to show the output wirelessly to the driver. Instead of having the led display with the tangled wire.

Advantages of the System

Of all the existing research covered, many systems using the Ultrasonic sensor were found to be less accurate during bad weather conditions. It also has less detection range (2-4m) & is not good at detecting fast-moving objects.

A lot of existing systems warned the driver through audio (buzzer) & a very basic visual aid (Led) which lacked in providing the driver with sufficient information.

System installation on car

The sensor was placed above the fuel tank lid of the car (Wagon-R). The horizontal viewing angle of the sensor as noticed from the top was about 45°. The sensor’s detection zone is 8m to 9m. The flat distance from the bottom to the sensor was 104 cm. The absolute arrangement of the LIDAR sensor and the screen on which the warning would be displayed i.e., the BLiM Application in the mobile placed on the dashboard is pictured in the above image. 

Conclusion

The proposed system is highly accurate and most importantly cost-effective. Such systems are only available in the higher segment vehicles. However, most mid-range cars that form a major component of vehicular traffic skip these systems. Thus the system is a solution for this segment.

This project model is Patented under Indian Patent and has a Research Paper published in Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Series C [Springer Journal] (Scopus Index) (UGC approved)

To read more details about this system the entire Research Paper is available on the springer website [Click Here]

This was our Final year Project model of Engineering. Please let me know about it in the comments below.

 Hydrogen has been praised as a fuel of the future that could enable the end of the world’s reliance on fossil fuels and benefit change to net-zero emissions. But for this hydrogen revolution to take place, some big barriers need to be overcome. So is the hype about hydrogen justified?

The most plentiful element in the universe is Hydrogen. It’s necessary for life, the sun is specially made of it and it’s present in almost all alive things. But on earth pure hydrogen is very inadequate. Instead, it mainly exists integrated with oxygen in the form of water. So how does this ample element get turned into a fuel that could help preserve the planet?

Advantages of using hydrogen fuel

One of the advantages of hydrogen in a hydrogen vehicle is the only emission that comes out of the tailpipe is undiluted, drinkable water. In contrast, the internal-combustion engine puts out loads of harmful chemicals and carcinogens. This signifies that as long as the energy used to produce it is sustainable hydrogen can be a certainly green fuel.

How hydrogen fuel is Generated?

The first hydrogen needs to be obtained. This is done by splitting molecules. Hydrogen is a power carrier unlike, petroleum which is a primary power source. To make hydrogen from something requires an input of energy. Methane can be used via a process called steam reforming or a source of electricity through electrolysis. Once you have some hydrogen you can either burn it directly or mix it with oxygen in a fuel cell, which is somewhat like a battery. The reaction in the fuel cell creates electricity and heat. And the merely waste is water.

How hydrogen fuel could be used?

NASA began using hydrogen fuel cells to develop electricity in its space capsules in the 1960s. Today it’s not only being considered a rocket fuel in space but also for planes, trains, and automobiles. As well as the industrial sector. The most potential early applications are going to be in heavy industry, for example, steel- and cement-making. These are heavy, heavy greenhouse-gas polluters and they ingest tons of energy, a lot of coal in respective. And it’s very challenging to substitute that with electricity which is probably how most of the decarbonization of the global economy will occur.

Why hasn't hydrogen fuel been accepted in past?

This isn’t the foremost time hydrogen has been called the energy of the future. So the question is why has it never taken off? Until renewables existed at scale producing hydrogen required extensive quantities of fossil fuel, or nuclear energy which caused hydrogen both more expensive and less efficient than other ways of storing and delivering energy until climate change moved up the political agenda. Hydrogen simply wasn’t worth it. The existing fossil-fuel infrastructure has been in place for decades. It’s trillions of dollars of invested legacy equipment and the companies that built it defend their assets. And so it makes it very difficult for governments to force that legacy equipment to be pushed aside in favor of radically new rival equipment like hydrogen infrastructure or for that matter, renewable energy.

Is hydrogen fuel safe?

The passengers look down to see the east coast of America gliding by beneath them. There has also been a battle against public perception of hydrogen’s safety sparked by the Hindenburg disaster in 1937. Within moments there was a tremendous outburst and sharp orange flames formed the backdrop for a tableau of death. Hydrogen gas is very combustible and does need to be stored in a precise way. But fears about its protection are overblown. The Hindenburg did not burst because of the hydrogen it's been authenticated. That’s a misperception and what’s more, the industry has shown that hydrogen vehicles can be safer than internal-combustion vehicle cars that use gasoline which, of course, is an explosive product. Everyday hydrogen across the world, is used by industry quite safely. 

Advantages of Hydrogen over batteries

One advantage hydrogen has over batteries is that it’s much more energy-dense which means that with a very high-pressure storage system it takes much less space to make a vehicle go any distance. If you have a hydrogen tank on board you can refuel a vehicle quickly compared to batteries and electric cars. But we do have issues of the cost we have issues with refueling stations and fuelling infrastructure that has to be built out. So that’s another obstacle that stands in the way of hydrogen.

Is hydrogen sustainable?

There’s also a question over how sustainable hydrogen is despite some advances in the technology to generate it still requires energy-intensive processes that are fuelled largely by fossil fuels or lots of electricity. The only method to make truly green hydrogen is to produce it using sustainable energy. At the moment, a lot of the hydrogen that’s used in the world is made from natural gas but that does produce some greenhouse-gas emissions. Some people see this as terrible. And other people say this could be a bridge. It can help build a market until there’s enough renewable energy and electrolyzers become more efficient and more cost-effective.

But even if renewable energy is used in the electrolysis process the energy content that comes out is less than what goes in. Which leads some to argue that hydrogen is just a waste of renewable energy. They have a point that there are a bunch of applications in which electricity is the most promising thing to use and more efficient. Whereas there are other applications in the hefty industry especially long-distance transportation, for example where hydrogen could find a niche and quite a big niche.

Unlike earlier waves of enthusiasm, hydrogen fuel could be here to stay this time. Technological advancements are causing hydrogen production more efficient and cheaper and this along with the government’s affirmation of decarbonizing is helping push a new hydrogen economy. We see huge improvements in the vehicles or the processes that use hydrogen and we see much more sophistication among the companies that are using it 

According to a study by McKinsey, there are more than 350 large-scale global projects underway right now. The whole investment projected in the hydrogen sector amounts to an evaluated $500billon. Scientific advancements, driving from the laboratories to pilot plants and eventually fetching towards a marketplace because they know a market that will pay for low-carbon techniques or green hydrogen is arriving. 

Germany has declared a €7billon program and the Chinese government wants to include 1 million fuel-cell-powered vehicles on its roadways by 2030.

Will there be a hydrogen revolution in the future years?

When we think about the tools that are needed to get to a net-zero carbon world There’s no doubt that hydrogen will play a role. In the short term, electrification is going to lead to the decarbonization charge. Still longer-term, I think there is a great potential for a real hydrogen revolution that would play a big role in a decarbonized society.

Are hydrogen cars possible?

As of 2022, there exist two models of hydrogen cars publicly available in select markets: the Toyota Mirai (2014), which is the world's foremost mass-produced reliable fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV), and the Hyundai Nexo (2018).

 Automakers all agree to place the engine in the front of cars, vans, and trucks, after over a century of innovation. Why do we do this? What about cars where you pop the box? Porches, Volkswagens. What about those cars with the engines in the middle? What about supercars? Rear engine vehicles represent some of the best-selling and best-performing cars out there.

There exist all kinds of cars in the world. They have various types of engines, characteristics, transmissions,  features, and much more. A lot of people do not know that cars are also segregated based on the placement of their engines. There are mainly 3 types of positioning dynamics. They are Front, Rear, and Mid Mounted engines. Let’s see how they stand apart from each other.

Front Engine

Front-engine front-wheel drive vehicles are more tolerant than the steering since the engine's weight is over the front wheels. That gives them more traction. That means it's easier for your less proficient drivers to not spin out on icy roads. It's also more thrifty to cool the engine if it's in the front. So, it's cheaper to fabricate.

Why are most car engines in the front?

Let's go back to the time when in the 19th century, most horseless carriages had rear-mounted engines with rear-wheel drive. In 1895, French automaker Panhard created the foremost front-mounted engine with rear-wheel drive. To execute this, they invented the modern transmission. This design was outstanding to the rear-mounted designs at the time because it circulated the weight evenly between the front and rear wheels, which enhanced the handling and gave the front wheels more traction. Front engine rear-wheel-drive evolved to the pinnacle with Ford cranking out 16,500,000 Model T's from 1908 to 1927, and all other car makers obeyed lawsuit.

Rear engine

In 1934, Mercedes Benz looked at engine placement and asked a very German question: "Why don't we try it in the trunk ya?" This rear-end freak fest, produced the model 130h. Czech manufacturer Tatra followed suit and started producing rear-engine cars. The rear-engine design race peaked in 1938 when Volkswagen released the Beetle, designed by Ferdinand Porsche. Yeah, that Porsche. Tatra immediately sued VW, due to the Beetle's similarity to Tatra's rear-engine V570 and 97. 

Volkswagen was able to avoid a lawsuit by Germany that invaded Czechoslovakia. They did wind up paying a settlement after the war though, remember guys, war can't solve all your problems. The VW Beetle was cheap and economical. The original Beetles got 32 miles to the gallon and sold like Animal Crossing in a pandemic. After the victory of the Beetle, Everybody was dabbling with back row bangers. Rear engine and rear-wheel-drive cars were great for acceleration since the engine weight is right on the rear tires.

Problems in Rear Engine wheel drive

The main problem though is oversteer. Since all the weight is in the back, tight turns tend to make the rear of the car swing around in a fashion. Many attempted, but few achieved making a rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicle that was handled pleasingly. They rev like a dragster and kind of handle like a dragster. The first real success in that department was the Porsche 911. Yes, that Porsche. The 911 came out in 1964 with a balanced 16-pack. And they got around the oversteer problem by keeping the car downward and the wheelbase shorter than the Beetle. 

Some other popular rear-engine vehicles include the DeLorean DMC 12 and the Alpine a110. Not surprisingly, these cars are two-door coupes. Rear engine, rear-wheel-drive cars, pretty much had to be until the Corvair. It's the only American car with an air-cooled rear engine. An engine that sat behind the rear tires meant no floor bump to get in the way of your feet. The only problem though, is they've had a pretty long wheelbase for rear engine parts. 108 inches, 20 inches longer than the 911. Nevertheless, they sold like beefcakes laced with gravy.

A book that Investigated the entire automotive industry

One buyer was a young politician by the name of Ralph Nader. After driving the car, he became concerned about the car's handling ability. He published the book "Unsafe at any speed" in 1965. The book investigated the entire automotive industry, but was especially critical of the Corvair, calling it, I quote, a "one-car accident". According to the book, The Corvair's swing axle rear suspension would cause the rear tires to quote, tuck-under around turns, which would cause the car to drift. And since the front suspension had no anti-roll bar, the Corvair would be prone to rollovers, a sedan with rollovers. That's insane. By the time the book came out, Chevy had already redesigned the Corvair with a four-wheel independent suspension, but it was too late. "Unsafe at any speed" was a bombshell and people took notice. Corvair sales were cut in half, in 1966. People were afraid to buy rear-engine cars that were Unsafe at any speed. I don't blame them. Chevy decided to move on and produce after the 1969 model year.

And Ralph Nader went on to head for president like a million times. In the meantime, automakers kept messing with front-engine structures. The British Motor Corporation asked a very British question. "Why don't we make our cars as undersized as possible? "So we stay out of other people's away because we're courteous and unassuming and love to prompt." That's my British accent, I'm sorry. That's right. I'm talking about the mini designer Alec Issigonis, who had the bright idea of engineering the transmission into the oil sump, flipping the engine around to minimize the engine footprint, so you could squeeze it under a hood, that was a little over four feet wide. The engine could only make 33 horsepower, but it was enough to power the Brits since the car was so tiny and light.

Rear Mid-Engine transversely-mounted

Transverse engines permitted the hood to be compressed and per passenger space to be maximized inside. Plenty of companies from Fiat, Volvo to even Land Rover use transverse engines, but none as awesomely as a 1965 Lamborghini Miura, which uses a B12 transverse engine mid-mounted behind the two seats. That's right. The transverse engine transformed in six years. Anyway, back in Detroit, the big three we're concentrating on the front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, producing some cars, you might have heard them around like Mustang, Camaro, Firebird, the Charger, etc. With the engine in the front, there was no danger of oversteering unless you push that gas. They have a bit of understeer, but the engine weight improves the front tire traction so it's easier for your average driver to corner.

It's also cheaper and easier to put a radiator in the front of the car, and running hoses to the back sucks from a design efficiency and maintenance standpoint. It makes sense to have your radiator engine in the same place.

Muscle car Era

Thus began the muscle car era, with the big three and AMC trying to cram as many horsepowers as possible into a car. But when you want more horsies that usually means a bigger, heavier engine. As engines got beefier. You got a little more power mo toke more torque, yeah.  But less weight on the back wheels decreases rear-wheel traction and acceleration. To keep some weight on the back tires, you have to move the engine further back and push the passengers back towards the rear axle and you're left with an enormous hood. I'm talking 80s Camaro, 70s Firebird, 70s Chargers, and pretty much every muscle car ever. If you push the engine far enough back, you get a front-mid engine car.

Mid Engine

If the engine is between the front axle and the passenger compartment, it's technically mid-engine, but front mid-engine. If you're already sacrificing passenger area and want to maximize power and handling, you have to rethink engine placement. Take the Corvette, for instance, the C7 Corvette was the best front-engine rear-wheel-drive car that Chevy could design. But they're ultimately delivering the mid-engine Corvette. It's called the CA. Not only does it offer up to 700 horsepower.

Why does moving the Corvette's engine back, improve handling? 

With the engine behind the two front seats, but in front of the rear axle, the Corvette's center of gravity is in the middle of the car, which means a lower polar moment of inertia. Alright, the polar moment of inertia. Think about a figure skater spinning. When they pull their arms in, they spin more quickly. Think about you sitting in an office chair revolving around, when you pull your arms in you communicate faster, and if you can put your arms and legs out you spin slower. Why is that? The same principle applies to cars. If your car's center of mass is centrally located, it can change direction fast and with less struggle. The engine layout also improves braking. With the weight of the engine spread evenly across all four tires, all four brakes help equally. That's why mid-engine vehicles are the best handling, most costly two-seat vehicles on the planet. You've BMW IA's, it's your Audi R8's, it's a Porsche Cayman's, most Ferrari's and Lamborghini's, McLaren's lotus's, or is it low tide? 

Summary

To sum it up, let's run down the pros and cons of each engine location. The rear engine got great acceleration, but there's less weight on the front tires. You're more likely to Tokyo Drift if you don't know what you're doing. Mid-engine, awesome handling and braking but no room for extra passengers or luggage. And generally, they're expensive to ship.

Front-engine, they're prone to a bit of understeer, but maximum traction on the front tires. They're spacious and they're cheap to build. Automakers have verified that they can create rear and mid-engine designs that work pretty well. But most consumers want an entire second row of seats and they typically don't need all that performance for driving the children to Chilies. They offer a cheaper, more spacious front-engine car that's good enough. The front-engine cars have one, at least for now.

Some other popular:

Front-engine vehicles include Toyota, TATA, Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, etc.

Rear-engine vehicles include: Porsche

Mid-engine vehicles include: Ferrari, Lamborgini

What are your experiences with steering rear-engine cars?

Do you have an engine placement preference?

 After Ford motors stopped manufacturing in India. There was news from the last 3-4 months that TATA motors are about to acquire the Sanand Plant of Ford. TATA Motors will buy the Ford plant to increase business in the EVs segment. The question is that what is the use of this deal, and what kind of benefits will get both parties?

So to understand this deal, we have to peek into the sales of TATA motors in the passenger vehicle segment in India. It is divided into two different segments. First is passenger vehicle IC in which petrol, diesel, and CNG cars belong in this segment and second is the passenger vehicle EV which belongs to all the electric cars for example - Nexon Ev, Tigor Ev, Tigor express T. If you see the passenger department of this brand. Then in 2019, its total sales were around 202000 cars and this brand used to under-utilize its factory. This brand had more capacity to manufacture the cars but it had low demand to sell the cars due to this, it had to manufacture fewer cars. But In FY 2021, it sold around 37 million cars. So sales have increased almost 60% in this brand that's why this brand has to increase the utilization of the factories which means they manufactured more cars in their factory and it is good for their business. Everything is going well.

Tata Motors Facing problems to manufacture cars

At the start of 2021, this brand had around 30 k cars manufacturing capacity every month. and from the second quarter of 2021, the demand for this brand increased that's why the production capacity of this brand increased from 30K to 35K then the demand increased a little more and again this brand increased the production capacity from 35K to 40k. But now the problem is if it is manufacturing 40K cars in a month. So it becomes 48 million cars a year and its capacity has almost reached In this 40K capacity, I haven't included the electric cars but I'm including the engines cars of this brand only.

Pre-Booking of Tata Car’s

But now the craze for this brand has increased very high among the people and its business is going well. So now this brand has around 50K demand for the passenger vehicle for a month but it has only 40K capacity to manufacture the cars. Now, this brand doesn't have much margin to increase the capacity in their factories, and because TATA Motors is not able to fulfill this demand this brand has around 100K pre-ordered cars which they've to deliver whose booking has been done but it has not been delivered yet and now the backlogs of EVs have increased very much in this brand and EVs demand is increasing because the petrol price has hiked so much and price of the CNG cars has also increased and our government is also increasing the price of CNG fuel constantly that's why consumers are not finding extra benefits in purchasing CNG cars. The running of EVs is very efficient that's why customers are opting to purchase EVs TATA Motors has a huge stake in the EV department and If 10 electric cars are being sold in a month then nine are from TATA that's why TATA Motors is facing problems to manufacture EVs. 

This brand had 600 car capacity per month but the demand was for 1500 cars to come. Then this brand increased their capacity. and when they took the capacity of 1500 then they start getting orders of around 3K cars and then again this brand increase their capacity to 3K cars but now this brand is getting orders for around 6k cars per month. But the delivery output of this brand is only 3500 cars per month. So the estimate of the EVs segment of this brand is increasing to around 2K cars per month. So its demand is increasing but cars are not able to be manufactured. If we see according to the 6K units, this brand has around 70K EVs demand. But its production capacity is around only 30K and now the problem is that it is difficult to increase production capacity because this brand's EVs are manufactured in two different factories.

Where are Tata EVs manufactured?

One is in Sanand, In which this brand has around 10K capacity to manufacture the cars per year which is very less. 

And 2nd is in Pune which has a little additional capacity and almost fulfills its requirement. For example, A student has to top the paper but can't do self-study for more than 2 hr so how will he top, it doesn't mean that you can't study.

A Great deal for TATA Motors and Ford Motors

Now TATA Motors is facing challenges for this capacity issue and they are trying to get rid of this now they can implement 2 to 3 things. 1st thing is that they can make a new factory where they'll manufacture the cars and they've to spend some time buying land for the factory. Then they've to set up the factory and also they've to hire employees but it is very long and time-consuming and 2nd is that they can increase the capacity of the existing factory but it has a limit that has already been reached. So they need a solution where they can get pre-made factories and they can manufacture the cars in a very short time then good news came out that ford has exited from India and this brand has two different factories in India.

In which the 1st is in Sanand and 2nd is in Chennai and because this brand has gone. So this brand needs a buyer for its factories. So that their debt gets decreased a little bit. So, Ford started a factory in Chennai in the early 20s in India. This brand had manufactured a good amount of cars but the problem is that it is a very old factory and it has very less automation as well as you can manufacture only two models at a time in this factory. Whereas, in the Sanand factory everything is in good condition and it has 90% of automation. Ford inaugurated this factory around in the year 2015 ford made this factory with very good automation and they spent Rs. 45 billion and you'll find big robots in this factory that do 90% of the work. So this would increase the speed of making vehicles and manufacturing very good cars which will benefit TATA's Sanand Factory and brand manufacturers Tiago, Tigor, and electric cars as well and there is only 4.6 Km of the distance between TATA's factory and Ford's Sanand factory. So, there is very less distance between these factories. So you can take your forgotten things from another factory or it will help the company while transportation. for example, if the car's roof is being made in the 1st factory and through transportation, they've to take it to the 2nd factory. so it will become very easy for them. I am just giving an example. and there is a 24 million per year car manufacturing capacity in this ford's Sanand factory.

How will the workers be benefitted if Tata acquires the ford factory?

If TATA motors purchase this factory because Ford has left India. TATA Motors will be of benefit. That is why Tata Motors is taking over this factory and In this deal, they are getting one more benefit is that there are 23K workers in ford's Sananda factory and when Ford announced to leave India then their workers started protesting because they will lose their job if this factory will close and also appealed to the Gujrat Gov. If this factory will be in working condition then their jobs will be stay secured. So in this TATA Motors has claimed to the Gujrat Gov that they will reappoint all the 24K workers and no layoff will be done. So every worker will get their job back and there will be no protest. So this deal is beneficial for both parties. Ford will get the money for their factory and TATA Motors will get a factory to manufacture more cars and they will get 23K well-trained employees and employees will get their job back. that's why It's a great deal.

Tata investments to boom the Ev Sector India

And there is one more reason behind this deal. If you've remembered recently Tata Motors took a 1 billion $ investment from an investment firm TGP rise for their EV arms with a valuation of around 700 billion. In which a target has been given to this firm by Tata Motors that in this year, they’ll manufacture or sell this many cars and market cap which will increase our EV firm and they will get a better return on your investment and capacity will also boost.

Tata EV’s new launches

Also, Tata Motors has claimed that it will launch 10 EVs in India by 2026. and they will invest around Rs.150 billion in their EV firm. So to manufacture 10 different EVs, this brand needs factories, and to acquire this deal, Tata Motors has been showing more EV concepts in the last 2 weeks. For example - the concepts of Curvv and Avinya. and on May 11, Tata Motors is going to launch a long-range version of the Nexon EV. That is why a factory is needed to manufacture the cars and Ford's factory will be better for them. In which the experts are saying that this brand is about to invest around 20 billion in this factory through which the manufacturing capacity of this factory will become around 200K by 2026 which is a very good thing. 

Therein Tata Motors will be able to manufacture IC engine cars in their other factories and in this factory, they will be able to make EVs solely. So that's why Tata Motors will be in benefit if they purchase Ford's factory because it is very close and as well as the factory is in very good condition and as well as they'll get 90% automation with a good amount of workers. So in recent months, Tata Motors will launch a lot of EVs and if you don't know, then EV cars will be launched in the size of Harrier and Safari in India till 2025 and Tata Motors has started working on this project. 

So, let's see how this car will be. Please let me know what you think about this.

 The modern wiper technology we all have taken for granted was born because of one man's flash of genius, Prof. Robert W. Kearns created the efficient wiper technology and grabbed inspiration from the human eye. The wiper technologies before his were pretty inadequate and obstructed the driver's eyesight, Mr. Kearns's wiper technology was so original and brilliant that the ford company tried to steal it.

Let's analyze the details of his brilliant invention. First, we need to understand the mistakes professor Kearns made while developing their wiper technology. Wiper blades achieve an oscillating motion with the help of a four-bar linkage mechanism, a dc motor drives a worm the worm gear assembly, which is used for the torque multiplication. This mechanism gives the continuous movement of the wiper but these continuously moving wipers can block the vision of the driver. The continuously moving wipers will significantly affect your vision even during light rain. Here comes the genius of Mr. Robert Kearns who presented the idea of periodical wiping. He observed that humans blink their eyelids but this blinking never obstructs their vision, the reason we are unconscious of our blinking is that it's intermittent our eyelids take a long rest after each blink. This long rest at the extreme ends is the reason why our eye blinking does not interrupt our eyesight in terms of driving. If we stop the wiper blade for a certain period after each wiping cycle would reduce interference with the driver's vision this moment was professor Kearns's flash of genius.

Cam Arrangement in Bar linkage mechanism

We can achieve this intermittent wiper design using a cam arrangement. The motor's output can be connected to a cam which will move the wiper for only a short period and stop for a dwell period at the bottom of the windshield. we have achieved intermittent wiping or we can see the problem with the design. The reality is that a wiper technology's dwell time or rest time should be differed based on the amount of rainfall. In a low rainfall situation, you need a long dwell time whereas in a heavy rainfall situation you need a shorter dwell time-varying the dwell time using a purely mechanical arrangement is not practical. In fact, Prof. Kearns was so smart that he realized the issue of intermittent wipers and he didn't even try this design to achieve a varying dwell time wiper design the solution cannot be strictly mechanical it should possess electronics as well.

Adding electronics solutions to it

This realization was Kearn's second flash of genius for this purpose he developed an electronic circuit with all these features embedded in it. To understand the circuit let’s recollect some basic details about transistors. The transistor turns on when its base is forward-biased and it is reverse-biased when turned off.

He introduced a double-throw switch to make the switching of forward and reverse bias states easier when the switch is in this condition the base is forward biased and the circuit is on when the switch is in state b the base goes for reverse biased condition and the current flow stops in the circuit. He used this transistor circuit to power the wiper motor here the wiper mechanism is directly connected to the motor output. This is obviously a continuous wiping interestingly a cam connected to the motor can easily operate the switch and the circuit goes off the wiper is in the dwelling stage now. However, this is an infinite dwell time this circuit won't be able to turn on the motor again. 

Let's go back to the active stage and try to fix this issue this circuit is an active stage now and introduce a capacitor resistor pair in the circuit, the current flow direction in the resistor, due to this resistance there will be a potential difference between the two terminals of the capacitor and this will make the capacitor get charged. When the cam operates the switch the circuit goes off state as we know earlier now the charged capacitor acts as a hero it's ready for release the potential at point B is always fixed, however, the potential at point a will change during the discharge. Let's assume when the capacitor is fully charged the potential at point a is more than at point B the transistor is obviously reverse-biased however as the capacitor starts to discharge the voltage at point a drops at some instance voltage at point A becomes less than at the point B and the transistor becomes active the time duration of discharge of the circuit to activation of the base is the dwell time of this wiper.

The interesting thing is that we can easily adjust this dwell time by altering the resistance value. If the resistance is more then dwell time will be more, this way using clever electronics professor Kearns achieved a variable dwell time wiper mechanism. The heart of this invention is a brilliant electronic circuit but it is driven by a mechanical switch absolute genius right. 

However, during heavy rainfall, we need almost zero dwell time it's not practical to achieve zero resistance, and thus zero dwell time during heavy rainfall the friction between the glass and wiper is very low.

During its dwell or non-active stage the circuit it is connected but the wipers still have a good momentum they will continue the downward movement since the frictional force is low due to the wiper's high momentum they provide the driving force for the rest of the mechanism in the cam rotates this leads to activation of the motor again, in short, the inertia of the wipers helps to skip the dwell period of the mechanism this is a crude method to get continuous wiping from an intermittent mechanism in professor Kearn's patent, he has even elaborated more sophisticated circuits to achieve the continuous wiping modern-day wipers consist of relays instead of cams to drive the wiper motor the dwell time can be accurately measured and changed using timer circuits and microcontrollers also these microcontrollers take input from moisture sensors or rain sensors present on the windshield to automatically wipe the windshield if it's wet after developing such a brilliant wiper design.

What happened to professor Kearns was tragic he had to spend a good part of his life in court battles against ford motor company for infringing his patent finally he won the legal battle.

The fact that simple observations can lead to amazing inventions.