DH Bengaluru 2040 Summit | 'Swalpa innovate maadi': Bengaluru has responsibility to harness AI, clean energy for sustainable mobility, says Chetan Maini in keynote address

With regard to the 3.3 million vehicles in Bengaluru aged over 15 years, Chetan Maini, co-founder and chairman of Sun Mobility, said the retrofit technology already offers a green solution with a pay back guarantee in 19 months.

The convergence of artificial intelligence (AI), electric vehicles and renewable energy offer Bengaluru a chance to take the lead in revolution that will fundamentally reshape the way we live but we need to shift from 'swalpa adjust maadi' culture to 'swalpa innovate maadi', said Chetan Maini, co-founder and chairman of Sun Mobility.

Delivering the keynote address of the Bengaluru 2040 summit organised by Deccan Herald here on Friday, Maini said that with 12 million vehicles, the city was using 5 billion litres of fossil fuel, which translates to 11 million tonnes of CO2. In carbon sync terms, that is 500 billion trees...There is, however, a silver lining. the faster adoption of the EV has already put Bengaluru in a good position to unlock the future potential of the sustainable and intelligent mobility, he said.

What's happened in the last few years is battery prices have gone down by 10 times. "The cost of renewable energy today is cheaper than gasolene. At the same time, rarely do we see consumers, policy and technology coming together. In the global perspective 50% of all cars sold in China last year were EV. The number of cars is equal to all the cars in the United States. There is a silver lining to the growing vehicle numbers in Bengaluru, 54 per cent of all the scooters sold in Bengaluru last year were EV," he said, noting that the share of EV in the city was just about 15 per cent three years ago.

With regard to the 3.3 million vehicles in Bengaluru aged over 15 years, he said the retrofit technology already offers a green solution with a pay back guarantee in 19 months. Among the large vehicles, the BMTC has led the way with 1000 of its 6200 bus fleet becoming EV and another 1000 EV joining this year. The pathway, he said, indicates all the vehicles in Bengaluru turning electric by 2040.

AI-powered grids

Maini, however, underscored the need to scale up renewable energy powered by AI-integrated grid to complement the EV adoption. "If all vehicles in the city go electric, approximately 6.5 GW is required. Karnataka generates about 23 GW of green energy. We can run entire transportation through solar energy. We can further think of local solutions like roof-top solar energy where the payback per installation is under 24 months," he said.

Smart grids are the way forward in that they enable dynamic two-way transportation to balance supply and demand for power. The grid should charge the batteries in the day which will feed the energy back to the grid in the evening.

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Adoption of RE not only powers clean transportation, it builds our energy independence. "Bengaluru has the four pieces required for this transformation in the form of technology, hardware, scalability as well as growing renewable energy production," he said.

The future, Maini said, is about creating platforms that offer solutions at macro level and Bengaluru has the opportunity to transform itself from IT capital selling software products to offering sustainable solutions for a shared future. "We led the IT revolution, we led the start up boom, aerospace and EV production. In a way, we have a responsibility to lead the world into an era of sustainable, intelligent mobility and clean energy," he said.

Such a change requires strategic investments not only in hard assets but also in education and skill development. Such changes will create tens of thousands of jobs. "We always say in Bengaluru, 'swalpa adjust maadi'. We need to change it to 'swalpa innovate maadi'," he added.