Author Archives: PlugInCaroo

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About PlugInCaroo

Let us as a Nation move towards fuel efficient vehicles, clean water, green farms and a clean-green environment! India receives some of the highest rainfall in the world... still the country thirst for water... why? India has the highest cattle population in the world...but hardly extracts any biogas/gobar-gas from it... why? India tops the world in almost all agricultural products... but less than 1% is organic/natural... why? India receives good sunlight and has a Solar powered Airport... but less than 0.01% of houses are powered by solar power... why? India has the best electric/CNG car in the world (E2O/Tata NANO).. but 99.99% of car owners prefer to pay in dollars for their petrol.. why? (1Ltr = 1$ almost). All these problems can be solved by us 100% within our lifetime... if we take action to solve these issues personally and bringing awareness about it, (instead of discussing TV serials, celebrities, cricket scores & political parties). Let us together build a bridge of knowledge over ignorance! Lets us become independent from "Fuel, Water and Seed control". Right from the time when fire was discovered as a source of energy people have been trying to control the source of energy... not any more!

Bajaj RE60 “Qute” faces the hurdles of Make-In-India

“It is very easy to make in India but how to sell in India is the problem,” says Rajiv Bajaj, managing director of Bajaj Auto and the evangelist for quadricycles.

Bajaj RE60 is now branded Qute!

Bajaj RE60 is now branded Qute! – An awesome vehicle that is a life saver for the rickshaw driver and also increases his income by 40%… although the cost price is almost the same as that of a petrol/diesel rickshaw.

In India it seems that the the Indian Automobile Industry is still feeling its way out in the darkness as currently there does not exist the right environment either from government, bureaucracy, and such institutions. All achievements and innovations by the Industry…be it the pulsar, the Nano, the Electric car E2O have all happened in spite of (and not because of) the Government, Bureaucracy and Institutions.

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Apple set to unveil electric car in 2019

Rediff.com  » Business »  Apple set to unveil electric car in 2019

Four years from now…Apple is set to unveil the electric car… in 2019

Apple spent more than a year investigating the feasibility of an Apple-branded car.

Apple Inc has designated building an electric car as a “committed project” and has set a target shipping date for 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The project has been code-named Titan and its leaders have been given permission to triple the 600-person team, the WSJ said, citing people familiar with the matter.

For Apple, a “ship date” doesn’t necessarily mean the date that customers receive a new product; it can also mean the date that…

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People prefer a Hatchback in India… if not an SUV

People in India prefer Hatchback cars more than Sedans. Perhaps the trend had been set by Maruti 800. So if you are a maker of Sedan cars you probably cut a poor sales figure the exception has been Honda City which is a better car to drive than the Honda Jazz that looks a little cooler than City.

Car Sales

People prefer a Hatchback in India… if not an SUV

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Top Posts for PlugInCaroo & power of Digital & Social Media

We at PlugInCaroo would love to bring to your attention that the most looked up post on the site. It is definitely “NanoGenX vs Alto vs Eon vs WagonR“…The comparison is made with other cars which are a direct competition to Nano. These were not randomly picked but were carefully selected from a list of cars as these are the MOST SELLING CARS in INDIA.

PlugInCaroo top Posts - 2015

                                               PlugInCaroo’s Top Posts for Year 2015!

Going by numbers on our website… which is not even a website but just a blog-site…yet it was able to have effect-ed at least 100 Tata Nano GenX and 10 Mahindra E2O sales since June 2015. Wonder how many of their sales person make 100 sales in 4 Months? Most of their Dealers and sales people hardly know anything about these cars!! And do you think TATA or Mahindra cares for stuff like which salesman sold how much etc? Ha HA..

The cost of 1 GenX Nano car = Rs 220,000 (ave).

The cost of 100 GenX Nano car = Rs 22,000,000 (ave).

Profit for Company (10%) on 100 GenX car = Rs 22,00,000 (Rs 22Lakh) made just from PlugInCaroo blog in 4months… what do you think is the sales possibility in a year?… multiply 22 lakh x 3 (to get 12 month numbers) = 66 Lakhs… What do you think the company should pay as “advertisement” to the blog? … 10% of its profits? 6 Lakhs? Fair enough? Now imagine if this was a website with proper search engine reach, multiple pages, SEO, digital media and social media suppor, with support staff,  etc? This websites alone could do a minimum of 500 vehicle sales a year. They would still make a profit even after paying Rs 10 Lakh to PlugInCaroo website. That is the power of Social Media now multiple this with a hundred such websites in India and you can see a Tsunami…but unfortunately there are very few independent websites dedicated to Fuel-efficient Vehicles like Nano, electric vehicles and clean energy in India…. in time they might grow.

Why are we asking these questions? Because it is very relevant… and the answer is in the Power and reach of the Internet,  and the social media

Why is PlugInCaroo a blog-site and not a website?… well… we do not want to put money from our pocket to market and sell the cars for companies who do not want to pay for the effort people put in to sell THEIR product on which THEY earn a profit. We have discussed this with many companies at various levels and the response they have is that of amusement to say the least. Simple as that. companies think why to pay “small time” websites to advertise their vehicles as they are already doing multi-million advertisements.

Many companies also feel that its easy for a million $ company to have a website or a blog or forum with people giving positive review of the various vehicles… this is anything but the truth as people reading on the Tata or Mahindra or any such website do know that these people on the website are either getting paid or could even be their own employees… so you can put in 1,000 positive review on company website and these can carry zero value because PEOPLE KNOW… they are not dumb… thats why they are google searching… AWAY from company blogs and even landing on blogs like PlugInCaroo.

Then why are we doing this blogsite? It is just an effort to counter and remove the myth and shit put out by petrol-heads and their websites. Of course paid advertisements could scale up the proportions of the reach of the site.. and increase the sales by that much. Most Car companies sell cars & bikes in the traditional way… by Radio-TV-Newspaper advertisement…  One of the best ways to check if your company is advertising in modern way is to check how much they are

                            A. Spending via the Social Media +Blogs+ the Internet

                                                         V/S

                            B. Spending on Radio+TV+Newspaper.

If the Budget in your company for “B” is greater than the Budget for “A” it means you are advertising the traditional way and almost 60% of that advertisement is wasted. We can’t imagine any CAR or BIKE company  in the world who would have the balls or thought process to have a bigger Social Media+Blog+Internet budget…

Another example is Prashant Kishore who not only orchestrated Narendra Modi’s victory in 2014 General elections but also the victory of the Alliance of Nitish Kumar+Lalu+Congress in Bihar Elections 2015

…And yeah… Just to give you perspective…  there are much more people interested in “Holes in Mikhale Bora’s Story” (posted in Sept) than in Electric vehicles… and that post could, by the end of the year, be the top “searched” post on PlugInCaroo…

PlugInCaroo top Posts – 2015

Ather… dont need to hide behind dazzle prints or camouflage…

Ather… dont make the mistake to hide behind dazzle prints or camouflage… EVs as of now due to their scarcity in India and also due to the fact that most EVs (E2O or chinese scooters) are first generation do not need to hide from cameras…even if the vehicle would go through a future change in design… keep the ev folks informed… like the one where the scooter took had a fall and scratched… thats the kind of news the EV lovers are looking for and these kind of incidents get carried over the Social Media… depending upon how you put it out in the social media…

The biggest problem that EVs ever have in India is VISIBILITY… VISIBILITY…VISIBILITY… even today the biggest problem with E2O is VISIBILITY… VISIBILITY… VISIBILITY… there are hardly any electric vehicles on the road for people to know what is an electric vehicle and what are its advantages. People have never seen a made in India Li-Ion scooter… pictures and videos would help a lot… in Mumbai its said “Jo dikhta hai… wo hi bikta hai“… Celebs have proved this to be true…

But following in the footsteps of a petrol vehicle would be the biggest mistake EVER!

In an EV scenario… creating the vehicle is just half the story… setting up the charging infrastructure is the other half. Petrol vehicles are unfamiliar with such a scenario. Also any company who comes to create the vehicle irrespective of the lack of existence of either electricity or charging infrastructure in that area are definitely trying to climb up a greased pole.

Flaunt the bike… get it across… let it be commented or discussed… dont hold back… let the vehicle industry be shocked with a Bike Company promoting its test Mule… Let There are no Rules…

Dont do it like a Petrol Car/Bike  company does… most of them deal and do business in traditional way of how a refrigerator was sold 20 yrs ago… They usually pull off a silk cloth over the vehicle  and hoist the scooter one final day… and then say ok we have opened the bookings let the money roll in…

If an EV company does this then people usually go… “I was not expecting this”, “expensive”, “do you have pink?”, “too powerful”, “we have power cuts in our area in our areas”, “I cant take it on vacation to the next state”, “I was going to order, but I have to pay my rent” & 101 excuses… but these are people who will not be buying the vehicle.. but have a lot of time to kill on the Internet.These could also be of people who have liked your Facebook page…

What about those people who would be interested as they find the vehicle useful and convenient but is not aware of the bike. In case of such people the news of the scooter will reach him probably 300 days after the bike is showcased in the Dealer showroom. To enable faster reach and wider publicity Ather Energy will have to use every energy of the Social Media and Indian EV websites mainly. And to make this happen they have to stat putting out interesting images & videos of the scooter…

So dont undermine Social Media… it would sell much more vehicles EVER than TV, Radio or Newspaper advertisment TOGETHER!!! Put out as many images and videos of the vehicle but make sure each is different and unique and never repetitive like the NanoGenX “Factory Visit” campaign.

Polaris electric motorcycle… beat Harley to the market!

The Victory Empulse TT travels up to 140 miles on a single battery charge.

The Victory Empulse TT travels up to 140 miles on a single battery charge.

Polaris Industries, the maker of Indian and Victory motorcycles, has introduced an electric street bike that puts…

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Hero’s Special Ability electric scooter – could be a bike for ALL!

For a long time, physically challenged persons have had to get their two wheelers modified on their own to add two extra wheels. This has meant that the wheels are not covered under manufacturers warranty or vehicle insurance. Hero Electric has taken up the cause of solving this issue with its Optima Plus Special Ability electric scooter.

https://i0.wp.com/img.india-forums.com/images/600x0/177886-special-ability-vehicle-hero-electric-at-auto-expo-2012-in-new.jpg

Based off the existing Optima Plus, the Special Ability scooter comes with an extra wheel which have…

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Japanese ElecTrike coming to India…

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday said three Japanese companies have handed over letters of intent for investment in the state under the government’s ‘Make in Maharashtra’ programme.  Of the 3 one is a pharma Company the other is involved in metallurgy  but the  third… the third is involved in Electric Vehicles.Chief executive director of ElecTrike Japan, Noboru Matsunami, disclosed his company’s plan to Continue reading

How villages in Jaipur have become water-sufficient

Prahlad Singh and his friends look at each other, amused as they point to the handpump situated at the centre of their village. “This,” he says drawing an arc in the air, “used to be the grand battlefield.”

The stout middle-aged man, who works as a driver, cuts back to 2005. In those days there would be hundreds of women queuing up to fill their buckets. Invariably, there would be a few skirmishes over getting the buckets filled. But sometimes it got worse and led to even more serious incidents with the men taking sides and….

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Welcome to StoreDot… a 480Km Battery & 5 minute full Recharge…

A promise by Israeli nanotech firm StoreDot that within a year it will be able to recharge an electric vehicle in five minutes has gained some true believers.

Samsung Ventures and Norma Investments Limited (the investment firm that represents business tycoon Roman Abramovich), along with other investors, are providing StoreDot with $18 million for the development of its electric vehicle (EV) charging technology.

Come next May, StoreDot CEO Doron Myersdorf promised….

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