Electric vehicles (EVs) of world-famous brands, including Tesla and Porsche, are slowly gaining a foothold in Bangladesh because of the effective registration and operation policy for such vehicles.
In the recent past, some of the EVs of renowned brands entered Bangladesh - to be used for both private and official use.
According to Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), it has so far registered 34 EVs, including those from the famous brands.
The registered vehicles include two-wheeler motorcycles, private cars and jeeps.
This is worth mentioning that the first EV was registered in the country two years ago through an executive order.
Talking about the electric car market, a BRTA official said, "EV cars and jeeps of almost all world famous companies like Tesla, Porsche, BMW, Volkswagen, etc., are entering the country."
If any EV registration application is placed, BRTA does not keep it pending and completes the registration on a priority basis, he said.
The BRTA, which works with the government's target to convert 30 per cent of total vehicles into EVs by 2030, has prepared flexible policies, rules and regulations, encouraging people to import electric-run transports for their personal or official use.
In this regard, the government issued a gazette notification for the Electric Motor Vehicle Registration and Operation Policy 2023 on April 18. The initiative, however, started in 2018.
The EV registration is given based on the kilowatt and flat rate of Tk 89,000.
According to the policy, 1 kilowatt (KW) is equivalent to 20 CC, meaning 1,500 CC is the same as 75 KW while 3,000 CC is equivalent to 125 KW.
The policy focuses on the increase in the use of EVs, in a bid to reduce emission of 3.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the transport sector by 2030.
EVs are those that are operated by one or more electric motors powered by electric charge or rechargeable batteries, as per the policy. It shows that the battery-run rickshaws, vans and bicycles will not be considered as EVs.
However, the use of electric batteries in two- and three-wheelers has been rampant in the country due to a lack of monitoring by the authorities concerned. As per an estimate, the number of such unauthorised vehicles has crossed over 2.5 million.
The good news is that a good number of local and international automobile companies - Walton, Runner, Bangladesh Auto Industries Limited and AJIK - have already started manufacturing two-, three- and four-wheeler EVs in the country.
The government is also planning to shift the public transports into EVs as it has already taken steps to add 100 EV buses into the fleet of the Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) by this year.
The first bus-based mass transit line, named Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), being constructed from Gazipur to Airport, has also taken a move to introduce EV buses in its service.
smunima@yahoo.com