Electric Mobility in Nepal

Nepal’s urbanization is in standing up trends which is dominant by Internal-Combustion Engined vehicles and unwelcome air quality. Nepal’s capital city Kathmandu has been hitting with the issue of rapid urbanization and air pollution from past few years.

A seminar organized by Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) in 2018 reported, “around 35,000 people lose their lives annually due to air pollution in Nepal.” On an estimated 10 people in Kathmandu suffers from life threatening lung diseases like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), bronchitis and emphysema. 

Nepal’s Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli Sharma in 2018, set frothed a newly prepared action plan for electric transportation that aimed to turn at least 20 percent of public vehicles into electrical battery-operated types by 2020 and also addressed to reduced the fossil fuel operated vehicles engine by half percent by 2050. It was the first-ever Nation plan of Action for Electric Mobility in Nepal. The approach and strategy were accordingly to National Determined Contributions (NDC) that Nepal agreed at Paris Climate Conference in 2015.

Nepal’s two neighbor country India and China have devoted to manufacture electric automobiles only by the year 2030. Most of the vehicle are imported from these two countries and for this reason Nepal has to go for electric automobiles.

Sajha Yatayat, is working with Seoul-based Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), an inter-governmental organization to help the Nepalese Government to prepare a pre-feasibility study of electric buses in Kathmandu. Sajha Yatayat is a public transportation bus system in Nepal helping Kathmandu city and its periphery valley.

Nepal have outmost advantages and opportunities in many ways if gasoline and diesel vehicles being replaced by electric vehicles. When arrive to Nepal, the retail price of petrol and diesel rises up to 261% above the cost price but in case electric vehicles only holds around 10% tax on actual price.

References:

Nepal’s electric transport future is here. Nepali Times, April 26, 2019. Available at: https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-electric-transport-future-is-here/

20% electric by 2020. Nepali Times, October 23, 2018. Available at: https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/20-electric-by-2020/

Cleaner air with greener buses. Nepali Times, February 3, 2018. Available at: https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/cleaner-air-with-greener-buses/

Air pollution causes 35,000 deaths annually. Himalayan Times, March 10, 2018. Available at: https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/air-pollution-causes-annual-death-toll-of-35000/#:~:text=BIRATNAGAR%3A%20As%20many%20as%2035%2C000,pollution%20in%20Nepal%20every%20year.&text=Presenting%20a%20working%20paper%2C%20NAST,cardiac%20diseases%20(27%20percent).

Krupa, A. 2019.Barriers and Opportunities to Electric Vehicle Development in Nepal. Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. 3279. Available at: https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/3279

 Pic copyright: The Kathmandu Post, Nepal.