When I thought about this topic, it occurred to me that I should approach it from two perspectives -- low-end local and mainstream. Let's start with the low-end local approach.
Whenever I find myself walking in Dhaka, I become frustrated with how the battery rickshaws operate. They zoom past people and vehicles alike without much care. This surge in battery powered rickshaws started around a year ago and initially they were big irritants.
They are still considered a disturbance by a lot of people, although some have accepted their existence and adjusted. Some people acknowledge that the exhaustion of the rickshaw pullers during the long and hot summer months has been mitigated to a considerable extent. The passengers also reach their destination faster.
Yet, their increased presence has also brought new challenges. The narrow streets and crowded intersections often become an absolute chaos as the rickshaws try to weave through traffic at high speeds. The convenience they offer is undeniable, but it sure does come at the cost of safety and order in these streets.
The unease with battery rickshaws, as they are now, is not going away any time soon. There was some public backlash against them. However, a good compromise can be that BUET or some other Bangladeshi engineers design a good yet affordable model and have it properly trialed in Dhaka before the authorities greenlight it.
It doesn’t have to be something close to a complex standard mechanical transport, rather it can be something like a lighter auto-rickshaw with good overhead covering for both the driver and passengers. Any company or workshop can build such rickshaws while maintaining the standards. Authorities should revive these initiatives and get it done in a reasonable amount of time.
Poor rickshaw pullers might need some easy government loan scheme to switch to this proposed standard model from their current ones. The metals in the current ones can be recycled and reused. Also, there will be a need for some short training of the rickshaw pullers to understand road safety and traffic rules better.
Now, we turn our attention to the prospect of proper electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid vehicles in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, full EVs are hardly imported let alone manufactured. We can see arrivals of regular hybrids and plug-in hybrids from East and South East Asia. Hybrid ones have been around for about a decade while plug-in hybrids are recent imports.
As it is now, electric vehicles and hybrids cost higher on average, and their production expenses are also generally greater compared to traditional cars. EV and hybrid infrastructure in Bangladesh is still in its early stages, with few if any public charging stations and hardly any extensive support system.
There are a few EV and hybrid repair facilities offered by the main dealers, but the general workshops lack these repair facilities. The high-end EV and hybrid workshops offered by the main dealer or importer are quite expensive. The rarity of parts and skills for EV and hybrid maintenance in Bangladesh also makes them difficult to get popular.
Lack of public charging stations in Bangladesh pose a unique problem. For longer drives, the plug-in hybrids cannot go long stretches without having a fuel stop as the car will only rely on the gas tank instead of both battery and gas due to the unavailability of charging stations for the battery.
Furthermore, although EVs and hybrids are frequently marketed as being environmentally friendly, the truth is more nuanced: The mining, processing, and manufacturing necessary for batteries and other components can have a substantial negative impact on the environment. One of the prime attractions for EVs and hybrids in Bangladesh has been its eco-friendliness. Hence, until this confusion is resolved, it will be difficult for Bangladesh to make any definitive stride towards EVs and hybrids.
While we can wait for that information dilemma to end, we should definitely work towards giving our battery rickshaws a transformation to a better and safer model.
Sherveen Saqif Chowdhury is a freelance contributor. Email: [email protected].
