When you are stranded in the middle of a journey as your electric vehicle refuses to charge, you can’t just call a roadside mechanic to tinker with it and get it moving. Not yet, at least. Like Suraj Bidlain, a fleet operator in Gurgaon, realised to his horror when his electric three-wheeler would not charge as the battery pack developed some glitches. In Mumbai, meanwhile, Bhim Rao, an entrepreneur, saw his car’s controller was not working. When these EV owners complained, the faulty components of their vehicles were not repaired but replaced with brand-new ones. While EVs are becoming more and more popular, their maintenance is still at a nascent stage.
