Electric Rickshaw India – China left behind in electric revolution

Having a “Eco” badge is really important for some nations. India and China have massive air pollution problems. Thus, these two big economies have decided to go big on electrification of their public and private transport infrastructure. In China, the private electric vehicle is doing very well. Unlike the estimated 1.35 million passenger EVs cruising around China, the number of electric cars plying Indian roads is a paltry 6,000, according to BNEF data. Chinese automakers sell more than that in three days. India’s largest automaker, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., won’t sell its first EV till 2020. So what’s going great for India in the EV space? In India the electric vehicle that is doing great is the Electric Rickshaw.

Yes, the countries electric revolution has nothing to do with cars. India is home to about 1.5 million battery-powered, three-wheeled rickshaws – a fleet bigger than the total number of electric passenger cars sold in China since 2011. As many as 11,000 new e-rickshaws hit the streets every month, and annual sales are expected to increase about 9 percent by 2021, according to Rahul Mishra, a principal at consulting firm A.T. Kearney. But while China, the world’s largest auto market dangled significant subsidies to encourage purchases of battery-powered cars, India’s e-movement hardly got any tax breaks or special treatment from the state. Finance is also a part where the E-Rickshaw expansion falls short. Banks do not lend money to rickshaw drivers with low incomes.

Other hindrances to the growth of EVs is the lack of charging and battery-swapping stations. India nationwide had about 425 publicly available charging points at the end of last year. By 2022, government and private efforts are expected to boost that to an estimated 2,800 charging points, according to BNEF.

But with three-wheeled vehicles making up a $1.5 billion market, and manufacturers of electric versions include Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, Kinetic Engineering Ltd., and smaller outfits from China. India’s taxi startup, Ola, plans to place 10,000 e-ricks in its service by next April. Also, there’s the ameliorative effect that e-ricks have on the toxic air in India, home to 10 of the world’s most-polluted cities, according to the World Health Organization.