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-   -   11,000 electric rickshaws are sold in India every month! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/commercial-vehicles/203260-11-000-electric-rickshaws-sold-india-every-month.html)

According to a media report, 11,000 electric rickshaws are sold in India every month and sales are expected to increase around 9% by 2021. India is currently home to around 1.5 million e-rickshaws, which is more than the total number of electric passenger cars sold in China since 2011. While government subsidies helped the EV sector to grow in China, no incentives were offered by the Indian government.



Mahindra and Kinetic are some of the biggest players in the US$ 1.5 billion electric 3-wheeler market. Then there are smaller companies that import components from China and assemble them locally.

Ride-hailing companies like SmartE and Ola are fueling the growth in this sector. SmartE has over 800 e-rickshaws around New Delhi, while Ola plans to introduce 10,000 e-rickshaws by April 2019.

The lack of charging infrastructure is said to be hampering the growth of EVs. At the end of 2017, there were about 425 public charging points in India. By 2022, this number is expected to rise to 2,800. SmartE has partnered with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation to setup charging points near 10 stations and plans to expand to 214 stations by the end of 2020. Further, subsidies and better financing options are expected to promote the growth of e-rickshaws.

While there has been a noticeable growth in the electric 3-wheeler market in India, the same isn't true for privately owned EVs. There are just 6,000 passenger EVs in India, compared to 1.35 million in China.

Source: Bloomberg

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Surprising! Where are they hiding? Yet to notice one on the roads down here in the south.

The last time an EV rickshaw made news online was during the launch of IKEA.

Exactly my sentiment when I read the news a couple of days back.

How did those things: that weird contraption pictures in the news article qualify to be sold and furthermore, get featured in a news article. If that is the "revolution", the joke is horribly on us. We need better, *proper* EVs that are safe.

The only EVs I have seen in Pune are much smaller versions of these that are parked more than they are operational, and are more of a political propaganda (to highlight a politician's gift for the benefit of common man) than of use.

Wow! This is indeed fantastic to hear! But similar to @crazy driver, yet to see one in the west. Last few months @Nepal, I saw several of these in the plains, primarily chinese brand based. Was told by a colleague that Bihar and neighboring eastern states have these e-rickshaws in abundance. Wasn't aware of Mahindra and Kinetic also being big players!

Did Reva purchase enable the move for Mahindra?

1.5 million number is not really believable. If the current sales are 11,000 per month then it means 1.32 lakh per year. To reach 1.5 million cumulative sales they must have sold 11,000 per month for 11+ years.

As others mentioned above in this thread, I am yet to see one of these in AP or TS (Hyderabad).

Anyway, these are based on lead-acid batteries for your information.

I am happy that they are hidden. I saw a few of these ply in local neighbourhoods supported by politicians who bought them. Each of them plastered them with their pictures and election campaigns.

These contraptions are slow, unsafe and stop at the sight of every passenger. Was a nightmare for traffic. I hope all projected sales also stay hidden and are off our roads.

I presume the E golfkart are also part of these numbers. Recently I was in a resort in Pondicherry and they had e-rickshaw and what seem similar to golfkarts. More than public, a lot of sales is driven by hotels,resorts etc.

These are fairly common in North especially in and around Delhi. Most of them are used as last mile connectivity from Metro stations to different neighborhoods.

These are very unsafe and since you don't need a license if the speed limit is less than 25 km/h, it's very easy to see young guys riding these at breakneck speeds in the by-lanes. Also no helmets are worn by riders and there's nothing for the security of the passengers as they can just hold on to the sides hanging on to their dear life. I have personally seen a number of injuries and people fall directly on the roads in between traffic in case of even a small accident.

But then since these rickshaws only charge Rs. 5-10 depending on the distance, they are becoming fairly popular. And they have also led to a decrease in the number of hand pushed rickshaws and affected their livelihood as well.

1.5 million seems to be a bit high but these started getting popular in Delhi around 6-7 years ago so the numbers will be in vicinity if not too high.

Also I am yet to come across even one of these in Hyderabad in last 3 years.

Erickshaws are pretty common in Delhi .The quality and safety leaves a lot to be desired. One of the better looking ones I saw recently in a cement plant http://www.speedwaysev.com/

As early was 2012, I have been seeing these Rickshaws in and around the NCR region. While these rickshaws cater to the regular crowd outside nearly every Metro station in Delhi, they are also quite popular in tourist destinations in like Agra [Taj Mahal] too.

And when we drove again on the GQ in 2013, we used these rickshaws immensely whenever we got down at any Metro Station in Delhi.

Come to Delhi and you will find a million in Delhi alone. They have made a mess of Delhi roads, with no sense of any kind of road manners and regulation. They will run on any lane they want and stop anywhere. The maximum number of passengers they can carry is 1+4, but 6 is a norm in Delhi at a dangerous speed of 30kmph. I have seen boys as young as 14 driving these on NH-1. They should be limited to the colonies and villages if not banned completely as they are not safe for passengers and other road users.

Kolkata is nowadays full of e-rickshaws in the areas a bit far from the city center. In the Rajarhat area they are teeming everywhere, and there are stands for e-ricks. Where I live (extreme South-East Kolkata) there are many old cycle rickshaws converted to e-ricks by bolting on an electric motor and a battery. While the modern e-ricks have shock absorbers and a fatter wheel in the front, plus springs and shocks in the rear, they must be having brakes, too. The converted ricks look very unsafe as well as uncomfortable, especially because the drivers don't appear to have any training in handling an electric drive, albeit small.

As to charging points, there are none at all. Presumably all these e-ricks are charged at night from homes.

Kolkata has tiny "EVs", if one can call them that, to pick up garbage. They have solid rear axles (with a motor bolted on) and leaf springs. The rear track is very narrow, probably 80 cm or so, so that a differential is eliminated.

Hideous numbers of them in Varanasi! Impossible to walk anymore as at least the cycle and hand-pulled ones were slow and steady. These are all metal and drive like Ayrton Senna. While very convenient I loathed them by the time we left for good old Autoluru.

You are lucky to not notice them down south! :)

We have a huge problem here in name of these e-rickshaws. First they were a surprise for our ancient MV act, where they didn't even need to register/ get any permits from the RTOs and forget the drivers needing any driving licence! That brought a huge influx of these rickshaws in the eastern and northern part of the country with a lot of local manufacturers producing the same. Thankfully MV Act was amended and the basics for this e-cart was put in place.

Now they hog most of the city roads and are a menace to us, mainly because:

1. The huge numbers they are in,
2. The way they drive and park,
3. Overloading as you would expect is common,
4. Have dangerous construction; the way the leg guard of driver is constructed (refer to opening post images). The ones on the local ones here are even more dangerous with sharp metal edge protruding out which can hit pedestrians, etc.
5. Due to extremely light weight and dimensions, they are prone to turn turtle, which is again a safety issue.

I appreciate the fact that these are non-polluting, but the above points make me feel that they are becoming a new problem of their own.

They are unsafe and they are driven around, like auto rickshaws, with no concern for a drop of traffic sense. But they are God send for the lower middle class and the economically deprived sections of urban society providing them with affordable last mile connectivity and probably saving many of their passengers half an hour or more each trip [versus legging it]. Of course they add to our traffic chaos but us rich folks should remind ourselves that we the car owners are the road hoggers in this country and not the e-rickshaws or the buses.

PS: Quite likely a view that will tickle the irritation buds of car lovers because we believe the roads are meant only for us.