Menu
The New Era of Micro Mobility in Nepal
The change in technological innovations have been going on since the Industrial revolution which happened back in 1760 to 1820 and 1840 which was a major transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain , continental Europe as well as the United States. One of the remarkable achievements of the Industrial revolution was the transition of creating goods and by using the machines instead of hands. It also transformed economics that had been completely based on agriculture as well as handicrafts into economics based on the large scale Industry, mechanized manufacturing as well as factory system.
A significant invention for the late period of the Industrial Revolution was the automobile which was produced in mass scale for the audience in 1908 by Henry Ford. Since then there have been major changes and transformations in the automobile Industries. With the development of Steam Engine and Internal Combustion engine, the automobile industry made a major revolution as it changed how people travel from one place to another. However, IC engines depend completely on Oil and Natural gas in order to operate therefore the depletion of fossil fuels in the Earth’s Core is one of the major challenges which humanity has to overcome in order to make survival easy in the days to come. On the other hand, alternative energy has a big role to replace fossil fuels and they can be the most efficient medium which can probably bring new revolution to the automobile Industry.
Due to the continuous increase of prices of crude oil in the global market billions of dollars are spent every year from countries that are highly dependent on oil purchase in order to run industries as well as automobil. In Nepal itself around 218 billion worth of petroleum products has been imported in the last fiscal year. It is an increment of around 82% from the last fiscal year. In order to minimize the capital flight of Nepalese currency one of the best alternatives is to shift from petroleum products to electric vehicles and electric scooter can be their first choice as it is lighter in weight, can carry goods from one place to another, cost efficient in comparison to four wheelers and easy to use for mobility. Even if electric vehicles are the best choice as compared to IC engine vehicles, there are many factors which limit the usage and sales of electric vehicles.
Factors affecting purchase of E-scooter
Analysis of e-scooter users
Most of the customer segment are not fully acquainted with the usage of electric vehicles because they have been using IC engine vehicles for a long period of their life and they are much more comfortable to operate, maintain as well as run the vehicle. An instant shift from IC engine vehicles to electric vehicles could be a slow process but when we look at the benefits as well as its potential the changes are necessary no matter how slow the process would be. There needs to be a complete change in the mindset of people who are currently users of regular vehicles.
Travel Patterns
People mostly believe that electric vehicles or say an electric scooter are favorable for shortest duration as they may have very less understanding about the technical terminologies like watt/hours or in simple words the potential of the battery to cover certain distance, cost per hours, cost per km distance. In addition to that, people might prefer regular vehicles in comparison to electric vehicles if their usual travel patterns are more as they can fill gas or petroleum products as it is easily available. However, when it comes to Nepal, charging stations as well as the minimum infrastructure are lacking and we are behind compared to other countries. Also most of the people prefer public vehicles in comparison to electric vehicles as the mindset, travel pattern, trust is yet to be built up amongst people.
Willingness to Switch
This factor refers to the mindset of people to switch from regular vehicles to electric vehicles. When people are already comfortable with using IC engine vehicles for so long there can be possible questions coming up like why do we need to shift/switch or buy a new vehicle when we already have a vehicle. Also to note that, it is difficult to make people teach the latest methods as well as Standard Operating Procedure of using electric vehicles as people are already habituated in using the conventional methods and the level of willingness to switch from one to another may not be practical in real life.
Policies Rules and Regulations
One of the most important factors that can ease, facilitate and increase the use of electric vehicles is the policies, rules and regulations made by the government. In Nepal, the ease made in taxation policy, price of vehicles, policy for assembly units inside the country has been included in fiscal policy. It is a great shift and willingness from the side of the government however implementation of these policies greatly makes the necessary changes needed. Even if the usage of electric vehicles are increasing in Nepal however the capital flight in these purchases is still a major problem. The increase in electric vehicles will somewhat contribute to less consumption of petroleum products however due to import of vehicles billions of nepalese currency will flee that will show adverse effect on Balance of Payment. To solve this an assembly unit in the Industrial zone could be a favorable option in the days to come.
Comfortable in Riding
For common people, ride quality is much more important than the top speed. While riding an e-scooter it is important to note that it should prevent mitigating accidents, soak the humps as well as lumps in the road and give us comfort while we ride. In order to avoid skeletal rattle we should first focus on wheels and tires of vehicles as we need prevention against the potholes. A wheel of at least 10in diameter is the minimum criteria while if we are planning to go off road we need larger wheels as well as tyres with thread on it.
Some scooters also have suspension as front rear as well as double-wheel suspension. Prices of e-scooter would largely depend on how intricate the overall set-up of the e-scooter is.
Advantages of E-scooter
The manufacture as well as purchase of E-scooter has been widely supported as well as accepted around the world when it comes to the traits and its features. Some of the multidimensional factors of e-scooter include the ease in mobility, safety, comfort, materials use, economy in use, traffic, fuel saving, use of alternative energy. While the growing trend of e-scooter is reaching a new height we should also not forget that in order to meet sustainable transport in major cities of the world it needs to be accessible and available to different levels of social groups. When we talk about the release of CO2 and its effect on environment some of the standard car emits.
147g to 414g of CO2 while e-scooters are an environmentally friendly option. To take an example- In order to drive a gasoline powered vehicle for 1.2 km we need 1 KW of energy while in the case of the Tesla Model 3 can travel for about 6.5 km using the same amount of energy. In the case of an e-scooter it can travel for distances of more than 125 kms.
Less Storage Area
E-Scooter occupies a tentatively low surface area for parking and storage. Some of the worldwide available e-scooter can be folded and can be carried from one place to another too. Due to its heavy battery it may not be feasible for everyone to carry the e-scooter from one place to another. Parking area has been the most vulnerable problem in Nepal. Due to the large population as well as vehicle movement especially in the capital city i.e Kathmandu e-scooter can be a best option as compared to other vehicles.
Budget Friendly
Investment on E-scooter is a one time Investment as we do not need to Invest daily on purchase of expensive fuels. The alternative energy i.e electricity is available in almost every part of cities in Nepal. Also various charging stations are being placed in different places in Nepal through government initiatives as well as private partnerships. Lower electricity cost, low maintenance as well as policy from government regarding the e-scooter assembly plant in Nepal, tax benefit for assembly parts would minimize the cost in the near future.
Easy Commute
As the e-scooter uses less surface area on road therefore, it hardly gets stuck in the traffic when it can commute easily on road. It also saves time and avoids huge traffic when it can travel via alternative roads in the city area.
Time Saving
When the large mass of population is dependent on public vehicles for transportation when the transportation is not easily accessible it increases the traffic jam and increases the travel time. When a person can commute easily via e-scooter it saves time and increases the efficiency of an Individual.
Challenges of E-Scooter in Nepal
Unstable government policy
In fiscal year 2076/2077 Government of Nepal raised tax rate on Custom Duty of Electric vehicles which faced lots of backlash and criticism from public as well as distributors as it solely discourages the go green policy. In order to support the green campaign the government must make efficient policies that support the electric vehicle. Due to such kinds of unstable policy most of the public as well as Institutions have trust issues on establishing assembly units in Nepal.
Customer Perception
There are large masses of people in Nepal who are still confused on adapting the electric vehicle. One of the biggest fears is that they worry about the charge and battery life while they are driving. As petroleum products are easily accessible and can be refilled in much less time than that of charging, switching in mindset is getting slower. However, most of the youths are shifting towards electric vehicles. During the Dashain festival there are around 2000 orders for electric vehicles but due to lesser supply of vehicles the process is getting slower than expected.
Lack of Proper Infrastructures
One of the major Infrastructures of electric vehicles is the charging station. Even if the charging stations are being built and initiatives have been started, however, there needs to be substantial growth in charging stations in order to meet the proper infrastructures for customers.
Lack of awareness among customers regarding usage and benefits of e-vehicles
Safety issues
There are many cases reported in India for example-Ola e-scooter regarding the firing in the wiring system due to which accidents have happened. Such kinds of news as well as threats have raised safety concerns among the customers. In case of Nepal one of the major safety concerns is if any startup launches the portable e-scooter then the major concerns would be on insurance policy if any accident occurs. When the distributors import the vehicle then they are registered, insured and the process continues but it is difficult in case of E-Scooters.
Opportunities of E-Scooter
Even if there are lots of challenges seen in electric vehicles, electric vehicles are the next biggest thing that will dominate the automobile industry in the next few decades because the fossil fuel level is decreasing at the earth’s core and we must shift towards alternative sources of energy. The increased cost of fossil fuels has a potential to cause inflation as well as global recession. That is why we need to switch towards cost friendly and most efficient means of energy. Due to that consciousness, the majority of the youth population and learned people are shifting towards electric vehicles as they can see and feel that an alternative energy can save the money, economy, time and most importantly is environmentally friendly. When we talk about Nepalese economy, Petroleum products are the major Import which accounts for more than 250 billion Nepalese currency. Due to this Balance of Payment of our country is negative that gives rise to interest rate as well as Inflation in every goods and services. On the other hand, electricity is surplus in our country thanks to the completion of hydropower projects like the Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower project which added around 500 MW of electricity. With the competition of Madhya Bhotekoshi, Sanjen Jalvidhyut, surplus electricity will be generated which would ultimately promote electric vehicles in the long run. In addition to that Kathmandu Metropolitan City is working continuously in order to manage smart parking, road condition and road safety which will also directly contribute in addressing safety concerns of electric vehicles.
Proposed Plan
The plan of e-scooter in Nepal is to make the mobility in urban areas shareable, sustainable and efficient means of travel choice. An initiative to reduce the pollution in major cities of Nepal as well as provide people an effective means of transportation for mobility. We hold the major principle in making the urban mobility much more efficient and they includes :
- Accessible
- Available
- Affordable
- fficient
One of the major goal of the e-scooter is to make people adopt by empowering i.e paradigm shift by making urban mobility much more eco-friendly as well as efficient. Our e-scooter will be a technology driven platform run by user friendly mobile app, which enables the last mile connectivity which is seamless, sustainable and can be shareable.
Initially we plan to operate our ride sharing platform in major places inside the capital city where flow of people are more or most happening places inside the valley. Those places include Thamel, Jhamsikhel, Pulchowk where lots of people commute and cannot rely only on public vehicles to reach their last destination. We need to possess either our private vehicle or a book ride sharing platform like Pathao in order to reach our destination.
Implementation
Initially, we will be testing with one baseline model which we will be importing from our manufacturer from China. Our model will be tested in various road conditions in Nepal and Quality Assurance will be conducted. Based on the results obtained from the test we will. On the basis of the results obtained from the test we will be making certain changes either in our e-scooter or our mobile application. In the second phase we will order 10 sets of e-scooter which will be running in major areas of Kathmandu city. In order to make the commute efficient, seamless and sustainable, an e-scooter can be a new revolution in the days to come to solve the larger problem of mobility.