India rolls out rickshaws powered by batteries
NEW DELHI: India will roll out nearly 100,000 battery-powered buses and autorickshaws onto its sulphurous city streets in the coming weeks, setting it on the bumpy road to making new vehicle sales all-electric by 2030.
India has one of the most ambitious plans to kick its fossil fuel addiction, and analysts say the target is “daunting”.
Transport is a major source of carbon emission, and the Greenpeace group blames at least 1.2 million deaths a year in the country on pollution. Getting off diesel and petrol would improve the nation’s health and bolster the country’s bid to meet the bold climate change targets it pledged in Paris in 2015.
India is not alone in wanting allelectric cars, though it is aiming to go faster than others. Britain and France have said they want to end the sale of fossil fuel cars by 2040. But electric and hybrid models make up just three per cent of all cars on the road worldwide, say consultancy firm PwC.
That figure is even lower in India, underscoring the enormity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s electric challenge.
On top of gradually bringing in electric rickshaws and buses in the capital, the government has issued a tender to automakers for 10,000 electric cars.
But the government does not want to pay for a network of charging stations for millions of future green motorists.
Instead, it hoped private companies would invest in “swapping bays”, where drivers could exchange empty batteries for fresh ones, said Ashok Jhunjhunwala, principal adviser to the power minister and the official spearheading the efforts. AFP