E Mobility Center, GVPCE-Vizag

Dr. Sastry V. Vedula
Ph.D., FNAE, Sr. Member IEEE(Life)
Distinguished Professor & Director, E-Mobility Centre of Excellence
Profile:   https://www.gvpce.ac.in/EEE/FacProfiles/vsastry.pdf
  dir_emobility@gvpce.ac.in

Present & Future Activities at E Mobility Center,
GVPCE-Vizag

Summary

The growth of EV industry depends on the Government's push through Faster Adoption Manufacturing of Electric vehicles (FAME) with a view to integrate the efforts of industries, institutions (for future man-power needs), while combating the air pollution by 2030. The initiative of the management of GVP college of Engineering in line with other educational institutions such as IITs resulted in E Mobility COE. The target activities of this center are to:
(i) develop an integrated Master's / Dual degree program, and (ii) carry out R&D activities in E-Mobility related areas.

Introduction

There has been push from Govt. of India for making Electric Vehicles manufacturing through industries making use of initiatives such as on Faster Adoption Manufacturing Electric vehicles (FAME) I and FAME II. A respectable number of industries such as Ashok Leyland, Mahindra Electric and Tata Motors/Tata Power/Tata UniEVerse have now come forward to support the Government of India initiatives. In the same way, Amara Raja has taken the initiative to build Li-Ion batteries along with other companies. Tesla's-CEO, Elon Musk played key role in fostering EV culture over the globe. As it stands today Tesla manufactured 1 million EVs, while Nissan has achieved the same target recently.

Battery (especially Li-ion) manufacturers have a key role as it costs half of the vehicle and the heart of EV. Battery Suppliers are Amara Raja Batteries, LG Energy solution, SK Innovations. Here are a few of the top automotive brands playing key role in the development of a solid-state battery: i) Toyota (TM), ii) Nissan (NSANY), iii) Ford (F) and iv) Volks Wagen (VW).

There are other companies specializing in Battery Chargers and Charging infrastructure. Here Tata Power has been playing a key role. Manufacturers of Electric Motors & their controllers have an equally greater role to play as the gasoline engine shall be replaced with electric motors of Permanent Magnet/ Induction/ Switched Reluctance types.

Role of Institutions

In addition, there is a need for man- power development through various institutions such as Automotive research institute and educational Institutions like IIT- Delhi and IIT- Madras to name a few, which took the active role since 2021 in EV area. The Management of GVP College of Engineering has taken interest in starting a Center of Activity in E- Mobility from June 2021.

In line with the forward approach by Govt. of India under FAME, there is need to focus by educational institutions on Teaching and R&D in the area of E-Mobility to cater to the "manpower needs" of India. The following institutions have been playing important roles in terms of developing standards as well as for developing the man- power needed in EV sector. These are: i) Centre for Automotive Research & Tribology, IIT- Delhi [CART]; ii) Centre for Battery Engineering & Electric Vehicles, IIT-Madras [C-BEEV]; iii) GVP College of Engineering (A), E Mobility COE - Visakhapatnam; and iv) Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicle [SMEV].

Initiatives at GVPCE in E- Mobility

• Dr. Sastry Vedula, Director, Center for E-Mobility had been working on starting of an M. Tech (Inter - disciplinary) program on E-Mobility.
• Collaborative efforts with HBL power systems Ltd, Hyderabad has resulted in research funding in the Power Electronics & Drives area since January 2019 - a thrust area in EV drives.
• Collaborative efforts with Comuti, a start-up in Hyderabad in PV based charging for EVs since 2023.

A) Laboratories for Teaching, Product Development and Research

Keeping trained man-power needs in mind, E- Mobility Laboratories are built for effective Teaching & Research as well as for product Development. So far about Rs 50 Lakhs have been spent on building, which could be called a virtual product, i.e., a Digital Twin for the physical product built in the industry. In addition:

• GVPCE has entered MOUs with the following three industries: i) HBL, ii) Comuti, both of Hyderabad, and iii) TAFE- Chennai.
• Faculty of the Center for Mobility conducted workshops to faculty of other engineering colleges as well as graduate students at GVPCE. This relates to Modeling, Analysis, Simulation & Computation [MASC] using LabVIEW, Multisim softwares & Opal RT Hardware / High performance computers for effective prototyping of EV drive systems.
• A faculty member: K S Ravi Kumar for whom Dr. Sastry V. Vedula - an External Advisor, got the Ph.D. degree from KL (deemed to be) University, Vaddeswaram in June 2023.
• Dr. O V S R Prasad, Dr. J R Rahul and Dr. M V P Lahari are the faculty associated with the Center for E mobility. Project staff / Research assistants are also involved in activities under the stewardship of the Director for this E- Mobility COE.
• Dr. P Devendra, GVP College of Engineering for Women has run a successful FDP 5-day program during 09-15 December 2021 with funding from AICTE on the topic of "E – Mobility & Battery-Charging".

B) Future activities in the near term at E- Mobility activity (at GVPCE/W)

1. Though Visakhapatnam is good a hub for Education & Research, there are not many industries in this city and as a whole of A.P., except near Tirupati. Hence, attempts are being made to open an office of Industrial Consultancy in Chennai- the Detroit of India.
2. To explore getting funding from Central Govt. organizations like DST, CPRI and similar institutions as well as admitting students in EV area.
3. We shall explore collaborative research with possible funding from like-minded professionals at Universities and Automotive Industries in India and abroad.