The Indian government has announced Bharat Stage -6 emission norms to be implemented by 2020 all across Indian cities. The stringent emission norms have resulted in increase of vehicle cost, since they have to be fitted with advanced emission after treatment systems. The emission norms will eventually lead to compromise of power output of vehicles to fit within the norms. With the deteriorating air quality and legalization of stringent emission norms, the trend is towards shifting to use of electric vehicles.
The conventional electric vehicles available in current market comprise of lithium-ion battery pack of 11 to 18 kWh energy capacity and giving range of 100 to 150 km. This battery packs have to be charged for 5-6 hours with a dedicated source for complete recharging or for 1 hour fast charging to attain sufficient state of charge to reach the destination. The travel is dependent on charge of battery leading to "range anxiety" among consumers. To deal with it, battery swapping models have been proposed, but implementing such model has not been success till date. A good amount of data will be required for proper distribution of battery packs and charging stations, so that they will be available when required.
The aluminium- air battery is primary type battery with promising features like 8 kWh/kg of energy density, easily available raw materials and simple manufacturing process. The proposed work deals with envisaging an ecosystem for aluminium - air battery for electric vehicles, planning infrastructure for battery swapping stations and recycling or disposing of used battery, thus making it sustainable and feasible from the point of view of economics, environment and engineering is concerned.