Boogie woogie oogie oogie….

Below is a short interview with Akash of EV Future, a local Auroville company that produces the most incredible clean energy, sustainable, and stylish electric scooters!

I’ve been speeding down Indian dirt roads on my Ninja Turtle green Humvee for the past week now.  It is without a doubt the epitome of cool.  I can’t think of a better marriage between sustainability and sheer awesomeness.  Not only does it reduce air and noise pollution, it handles smoothly, it flies like a bullet, and it ups any rider’s street cred.

It’s because of these combined features that I refuse to switch to a petrol-powered vehicle.  In order to ignite a culture shift towards sustainable vehicles, we need to have our cake and eat it too.  I doubt the masses would sacrifice power and speed for sustainability alone.  We have to reinvent our modern technologies to function on renewable energy but without losing any of the comforts or practicalities we’ve grown accustomed to.  Otherwise, we can forget about the masses adapting.

Solar powered charging station

Akash and Sukrit and the other clever people at EV Future realize this and are developing their vehicles accordingly.  But on the other side of the equation, at least locally, remains Auroville itself.  The city could encourage greater and faster adoption of electric vehicles by providing powering stations everywhere (currently, there’s only one that EV Future erected themselves).  Auroville could also embark on a concerted effort to make some roads petrol-free.  If other global cities can become more bike friendly, why not make Auroville and elsewhere more electric vehicle friendly?