You could be a start-up entrepreneur buzzing with an idea but harangued with a shoestring budget and hence minus a car finding his way in the old bylanes of a cluttered Delhi. You could be out there to pick up some vital office stationery from a known shop where no car can ever reach.
Or you could be a homemaker having to change two metro stations on way to a cooking class that you must somehow not miss.
In another case, you could be an HR staffer in Dadar, Mumbai who needs to reach Prabhadevi at any cost for a scheduled assignment within an hour with no personal mode of convenience.
The role, honestly speaking, played by an E-rickshaw or as some sophisticated minds say, e-three wheeler, in each of these scenarios is big. It’s unique and it’s an apt fit.
Whether you need to reach the metro station or need to catch hold of that market where no car even ventures, what you need, just like an umbrella on a wet day, is an autorickshaw that can get the job done.
And in this part of the 21st century that is, ever so often, finding an E vehicle in its path, then the role of that Autorickshaw ride becomes ever so crucial. To a terribly cluttered mega-city, think New Delhi, Bangalore, or Mumbai, and to urban spaces that are left defunct by the noisy hell car horns create, an E rickshaw silences the morose and makes a smooth entry on the same old passages with a clear, fresh vibe.
And having said that, it’s rather interesting and exciting to note where the e rickshaw market stands in India as we speak.
- In what can be called one of the finest updates pertaining to the E vehicles market and the wide gamut of product offerings in India, it’s a fine update to note that as of April 2020, there already were no fewer than 1.5 million battery-powered three wheelers in the country.
- The aim of the industry operating E rickshaws in the country from April 2020 onwards, market studies confirmed, was to sell not less than 1,00,000 units on a monthly basis at a pan-India level.
- Names like Mahindra and Piaggio have so far, dominated the shared mobility space in the country and brightly so.
Further to the above, the most fascinating update from this market space dominated by unorganized players is that during the peak pandemic, this was the only space that was growing amid a backdrop of an industry-wide slowdown in India.
Premier business and economic publication The Economic Times even noted the massive means of financial support that the e-Rickshaw market offers its operators; those entrusted with the task of running e-rickshaw rides in the country, “The daily rental for an e-rickshaw command a premium of around Rs 300 by fleet operators, which is also giving a fillip to its market demand.”
What also augurs well for e-rickshaw owners and operators of their fleet is that, when compared to the IC engine, then the cost of maintenance of an e Rickshaw is anything but steep, and is, in fact, reduced by 80 percent.
On another fresh note of optimism, there already are companies in India that are producing up to 300 electric rickshaws, i.e., vehicles per day. Think Mayuri for example! Moreover, the demand for lithium batteries in the e-Rickshaw space is only picking up. On that note, it’s pertinent to note that India, as its workforce continues to shift from the tier-II and tier-III cities into the mainstream big cities, will continue to rely on this mass mover and transporter of people in the times to come.
