Electric vehicles for Kathmandu have completed a successful trial period, beckoning investors
NEATLY painted white and bearing
the inscription safa tempo (meaning
clean three-wheeler in Nepali language)
on the sides in green letters - the
electric passenger vehicles have come
as a blessing in disguise to rescue
the residents of Kathmandu. Although
only seven in number at present, in
the safa tempo, the commuters of
Kathmandu see a ray of hope for
rescuing the environment, national
monuments and also the national
economy.
The idea was introduced three years
ago by the Global Resource Institute
(GRI), a US NGO. "We started in
September 1993 with the conversion of
a smoky Vikram tempo into an electric
non-polluting safa tempo," said Peter
Maulton, executive director, GRI. The
safa tempo project was initiated with a
special grant of us $500,000.
The safa tempo project also convinced the government to reduce
import duty on electric vehicles from
125 per cent to- 10 per cent. Four
months ago, the project, with its seven
vehicles, battery chargers and 100
Trojan batteries were sold to the Nepal
Electric Vehicle Industry (NEVI) for
Rs 2.1 million (us $33,000). "We have
reached a break-even point," said Bijaya
Man Serchan, managing director of
NEV1. "We are very much encouraged by
the government as well as by our operation, so we are planning to increase our
fleet to 30."
NEVI engineers are also involved in
the production of battery chargers
which originally cost us $800. Besides,
they are working to produce a
AC/DC convertor to convert 72 volts
to 12 volts. When developed, the convertor will further reduce the cost of the
electric passenger vehicles.
"A prototype is already there which
will be more comfortable for the passengers and will require less maintenance,"
added Serchan. "Load distribution is a
big problem with the present model as it
uses six batteries weighing 150 kg, a gear
box weighing 50 kg and require heavy
maintenance. To reduce the overall cost
we will remove the gear box and make
other changes."
A company having wider interests in
this project, Electric Vehicle Company,
which is a joint venture between several
UK and us and nine Nepalese business
houses and industrialists, have also been
established. "Kathmandu is ideal for
electric vehicles because most people
travel less than 50 km and the speed is
very slow," said Graham Burgess, a representative of the American Power
Products which happens to be one of
the partner firms.
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