By: Tsering Ngodup Lama
It was 2010 when Bijaya Sagar Pradhan bought his first electric car. Electric cars then were a rare sight on Kathmandu’s streets, making Pradhan one of the earliest adopters of private electric vehicles in the country.
“I was tired of waiting in long queues at fuel stations and I wanted to lessen my reliance on fossil fuels,” said Pradhan.
There has long been a plethora of choices when it comes to petrol and diesel-powered cars but Pradhan, in 2010, didn’t have that luxury. The only private electric vehicle--or EV, as they’re colloquially called--available then was the REVA, manufactured by a Bangalore-based company that has since been acquired by Mahindra. It was a small-sized car that could only seat two adults and two children.
“The car cost me around Rs1.2 million and it ran 80kms on a full charge. Since private EVs were a new concept for people in the city, many questioned my decision. Some even suggested that I should have added Rs200,000 and bought a Hyundai Santro instead. The less forgiving ones made fun of the size and design of the car,” said Pradhan.
For ECO Vision, the company that acquired the Nepal dealership for REVA vehicles in 2010, customers like Pradhan were rare.
“EVs were a novelty. Many didn’t know about EVs, and many who did, didn’t trust the technology,” said Pramod Bhandari, manager of the dealership. “Convincing people to opt for electric cars over conventional petrol and diesel cars was tough.”
During its initial years, the company, Bhandari said, considered one unit sale a month as a significant achievement.
Since Pradhan’s REVA purchase, Nepal’s EV landscape has undergone major shifts. The number of EVs in the country, including private two- and four-wheelers and public vehicles, reached 21,000 in 2017, according to the Electric Vehicle Association of Nepal (EVAN). In 2018, that number crossed 45,000. Today, around 10 percent of vehicles sold in the country are EVs.
This significant rise in the number of EVs follows a global pattern where more and more countries are pursuing policies that promote the adoption of EVs in private life and for public transport in order to combat pollution and climate change. In 2018, the number of electric cars in the world crossed 5.1 million, an increase of two million from 2017, according to the International Energy Agency, a Paris-based intergovernmental organisation.
To cater to the growing demand for EVs, a slew of dedicated international manufacturers--Tesla, Rivian, LUCID Motors, NIO and Byton--have sprung up. Even traditional combustion engine automakers have started focusing heavily on EVs. The German auto behemoth Volkswagen plans to produce 50 EV models by 2025 and sell one million electric cars every year between 2025 and 2030, half in China alone. In 2018, Ford announced plans for at least $11 billion of investment into EV production by 2022.
“The future of mobility is electric,” said Umesh Raj Shrestha, chairperson of EVAN. But for Nepal to transition fully to EVs, the country needs robust infrastructure to support these vehicles. And the time is here for Nepal to start laying the groundwork for what is certain to become the next grand transition in transport.
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It was 2010 when Bijaya Sagar Pradhan bought his first electric car. Electric cars then were a rare sight on Kathmandu’s streets, making Pradhan one of the earliest adopters of private electric vehicles in the country.
“I was tired of waiting in long queues at fuel stations and I wanted to lessen my reliance on fossil fuels,” said Pradhan.
There has long been a plethora of choices when it comes to petrol and diesel-powered cars but Pradhan, in 2010, didn’t have that luxury. The only private electric vehicle--or EV, as they’re colloquially called--available then was the REVA, manufactured by a Bangalore-based company that has since been acquired by Mahindra. It was a small-sized car that could only seat two adults and two children.
“The car cost me around Rs1.2 million and it ran 80kms on a full charge. Since private EVs were a new concept for people in the city, many questioned my decision. Some even suggested that I should have added Rs200,000 and bought a Hyundai Santro instead. The less forgiving ones made fun of the size and design of the car,” said Pradhan.
For ECO Vision, the company that acquired the Nepal dealership for REVA vehicles in 2010, customers like Pradhan were rare.
“EVs were a novelty. Many didn’t know about EVs, and many who did, didn’t trust the technology,” said Pramod Bhandari, manager of the dealership. “Convincing people to opt for electric cars over conventional petrol and diesel cars was tough.”
During its initial years, the company, Bhandari said, considered one unit sale a month as a significant achievement.
Since Pradhan’s REVA purchase, Nepal’s EV landscape has undergone major shifts. The number of EVs in the country, including private two- and four-wheelers and public vehicles, reached 21,000 in 2017, according to the Electric Vehicle Association of Nepal (EVAN). In 2018, that number crossed 45,000. Today, around 10 percent of vehicles sold in the country are EVs.
This significant rise in the number of EVs follows a global pattern where more and more countries are pursuing policies that promote the adoption of EVs in private life and for public transport in order to combat pollution and climate change. In 2018, the number of electric cars in the world crossed 5.1 million, an increase of two million from 2017, according to the International Energy Agency, a Paris-based intergovernmental organisation.
To cater to the growing demand for EVs, a slew of dedicated international manufacturers--Tesla, Rivian, LUCID Motors, NIO and Byton--have sprung up. Even traditional combustion engine automakers have started focusing heavily on EVs. The German auto behemoth Volkswagen plans to produce 50 EV models by 2025 and sell one million electric cars every year between 2025 and 2030, half in China alone. In 2018, Ford announced plans for at least $11 billion of investment into EV production by 2022.
“The future of mobility is electric,” said Umesh Raj Shrestha, chairperson of EVAN. But for Nepal to transition fully to EVs, the country needs robust infrastructure to support these vehicles. And the time is here for Nepal to start laying the groundwork for what is certain to become the next grand transition in transport.
[FOR MORE...]
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