E-rickshaw drivers are resorting to often temporary, illegal and unsafe measures to keep their vehicles running in the face of ineffective government interventions—resulting in a chaotic e-rickshaw ecosystem. Experts tell CarbonCopy that solutions exist to turn the situation around but the administration must ensure immediate and effective implementation.
Ever since Sunderbans native Indrajeet Burkait, 24, bought a second-hand e-rickshaw or toto as the locals call it, his electricity bill has gone up from ₹300 a month to around ₹900.
Sometimes, and especially during monsoons, when there is a long power cut, spread over days, he has to resort to charging the EVs using diesel generators. Each charge costs ₹250— about half of the day’s income— covering two litres of the oil for ₹200 and remaining ₹50 for the service. In Indian parlance, this sort of makeshift measure is called “jugaad”. In policy terms, this can be called an infrastructure breakdown. The repercussions of such stop-gap arrangements are long term—on the e-rickshaws, their drivers, users and on India’s larger energy transition plans.
It’s been said in the past that India’s “EV revolution” has been led by e-rickshaws, that “India’s rickshaw revolution has left China in the dust” — that too without much support from the state. The sector has grown rapidly despite lacking infrastructure, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, when a lot of people lost jobs.
Back in 2010, the streets of Delhi were the first to witness e-rickshaws on the road during the Commonwealth Games. A little over a decade later, India became the biggest market for electric three-wheelers globally—with a sales figure of over 5,80,000 in 2023, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
“Aaj-kal competition bohot badh gaya hai. Sab yahi kar rahe hain. (There’s a lot of competition in this work [driving e-rickshaws] now. Everyone is doing this),” says Jugal Kishore Soni, 38, who drives an e-rickshaw in Jaipur.
In Delhi, e-rickshaws without number plates are ferrying passengers, violating traffic norms and endangering the safety of many on roads. There was a 53% rise in e-rickshaws’ road rule violations last year. Reports estimate that 40% of e-rickshaws on Delhi roads may be illegal. Unregulated e-rickshaws have also turned into a “menace” in Guwahati as well, among other cities. The Uttarakhand high court has taken a step towards addressing the mismanagement, encroachment and traffic violations by e-rickshaws. To top it all, the batteries used are not eco-friendly and, to a large extent, also illegal—running without the specific battery requirements or the paperwork.
This growth, therefore, can be compared to that of a petulant child—uncontrolled, without proper checks and balances and effective interventions. The result? Indiscipline and chaos. While e-rickshaws are causing mayhem on city roads, in remote towns, the ease of connectivity that they offer comes at a huge financial cost for the drivers, who are burdened with vehicle loans and infrastructural deficits.
But is it too late to rein in the wheels ? It isn’t, say experts, provided that the government acts immediately.
A hopeful start
It is important to remember that before the “menace” that they now are being seen as, e-rickshaws made life easier for many.
When Soni started riding his e-rickshaw in Jaipur more than two years ago, he earned around ₹1,200-1,000 every day, which has now come down to ₹700-500 a day because too many have taken to this profession. It is still better than his previous job as a cycle mechanic where he made ₹300/day, he adds.
More than 1,500 kms away from Soni, in the small, tranquil gullies of Baikunthapur in the Sundarbans, Burkait is among the only two toto (the local name for e-rickshaws) owners. The village has roughly 40 families.
Previously, Burkait’s mother would fetch water on foot from the nearest tube well— located about 1km away from their home. Now, Burkait brings home water on his toto, saving his mother the hassle.
Sujata Duari, 37, who works in a local NGO in Sundarbans, says, “Usually I go places on foot or use my bicycle. But if I have to go far, say, to someplace about an hour or two away, toto is more convenient. Riding a bicycle so far is not easy and toto also saves time.”
It is in the past four to five years that driving e-rickshaws emerged as a work opportunity in the region. Burkait, who previously worked as a mason in Kerala, has now returned to his hometown. While agriculture is a prominent occupation in the region, along with fishing, Burkait’s family owns no land or boats. Therefore, he decided to give riding toto a shot.
Burkait says that the number of totos in nearby villages will be somewhere between 30-40. But the lack of funding support from financial institutions to purchase the vehicles has pushed e-rickshaw dealers and buyers to resort to monetary “jugaad”—raising the funds from private lenders. According to the dealers and buyers of e-rickshaws that CarbonCopy spoke to, this is now the accepted norm. Burkait bought his second-hand toto for ₹1,20,000 at a loan from multiple people in his community. He estimates it to be not more than 2%.
Full speed ahead
A report by the World Resources Institute (WRI) says that the annual registrations of e-rickshaws in the country have risen at a compound annual growth rate of 80% between 2015-2022.
“After the COVID-19 pandemic, the trend of turning towards e-rickshaw for occupation has become more prevalent since a lot of people lost jobs in that time. Today, people from all socio-economic classes are driving e-rickshaws, even graduates,” says Devendra Agrawal, an e-rickshaw dealer in Ajmer, Rajasthan.
Since it is a low-entry-barrier profession, it attracts skilled, unskilled or low skilled workers alike. Currently, more than a lakh e-rickshaws ply on the streets of Delhi and about 29,000 in Jaipur.
CarbonCopy earlier reported on how India’s decarbonisation plans are creating jobs in the informal economy. But do Indian cities and smaller towns alike have the infrastructural capacity to accommodate the need of many to make a living through e-rickshaws?
The unseen costs
Varun K, a PhD Student in Economics, University of Chicago, is working on measuring the congestion costs due to the e-rickshaws. According to him, there are two kinds of costs incurred due to these EVs. First is the “time cost”. “Their travel speed is low. So, when there are too many slow-moving e-rickshaws on the road, they prolong the travel time for other vehicles on the road as well,” explains Varun.
Second, there is a likely cost to air quality, which still needs to be confirmed by his research. The longer other vehicles are on the road due to e-rickshaws, the more vehicular emissions there are. In cases like Burkait’s, when drivers use diesel generators to charge their e-rickshaws, it also adds to pollution.
There’s a big safety issue as well with such lightly-built EVs, Varun tells CarbonCopy. “Their framework is very frail. Since they are powered by light-duty batteries, they need to be a light-weight vehicle, which those batteries can power. It is especially a challenge during monsoons, on bumpy roads and overall poses safety concerns, with many e-rickshaws running into accidents regularly.”
Commenting on the reportedly frail and light-bodied e-rickshaws, Chandan Mundhra, Director, Savy Electric Vehicles — a manufacturer of the EV, says, “These e-rickshaws are not meant for high-speed roads. They are meant to be shuttle vehicles, to be plied on specific routes and service roads. Therefore, the speed limit for these e-rickshaws has been capped at 25-30km/hr. This needs to become clear to the end-user.”
The challenge of charging
Back in the Sunderbans, Burkait complains that current fluctuations are a major hassle for the local e-rickshaw owners. Some even resort to stealing electricity from the grid to charge their toto.
Pointing towards the electricity wires, Burkait says, “Isme bijli nahi hai, is taar ko haath laga lo toh bhi kuch nahi hoga. (There’s no current flowing in these wires. Even if you touch it with your naked hand, nothing will happen to you).”
Burkait recounts losing multiple tube lights and a couple of fans because of extreme current fluctuation. Sometimes it is too low to power anything. A full night charge is not enough to power the electric vehicle for the day.
Like Burkait, Soni also charges his EV at home at night, which could be lethal as the battery could explode due to overcharging. The norm is to leave the e-rickshaw charging overnight. There have also been incidents of e-rickshaw drivers not using headlights at night to avoid battery drainage.
“Lights nahi aaye to baithe raho, chutti karo (If there’s no electricity at night, we sit at home the next day),” says Soni.
According to the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI), there are 12,146 public EV charging stations operational across the country as of February 6, 2024. How many of these can be used for charging e-rickshaws? Barely any.
“The connector for other electric vehicles is different from e-rickshaws,”explains Anil Chhikara, former Deputy Commissioner, Transport, Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi. In short, it is like trying to charge an iPhone with an android charger. It will just not work. The connectors at public charging stations can’t cater to e-rickshaws.
“Besides that, other chargers have multiple sensors for temperature control, current control, voltage manipulation, fast or slow charging…it is all a micro process controlled activity. But nothing of this sort is for e-rickshaws,” Chhikara adds.
In such situations, it is the informal market that they have to look towards for help, where each charge can cost between ₹100-150/day.
“Largely, the e-rickshaw charging system is also informal. This is because you need a big space to park and charge them. These informal charging stations take a legal connection from DISCOMs in many cases, for example in Delhi, but they are overloaded,” says Chaitanya Kanuri, associate director- E-Mobility, WRI India.
Safety is another concern with such setups with multiple electrocution and blasts reported from such sites. “Normally, public charging stations need to be tested and commissioned after following due procedure. I’m not sure if these informal stations follow these processes. They are mostly makeshift, with many wires dangling, too many cables plugged in at one opening, etc. Informal operators offer packaged deals like charging and parking—which drivers account for in their income generation. The informal providers even choose locations that are more convenient to these e-rickshaw drivers. So that market has been captured,” adds Kanuri.
E-rickshaw drivers in multiple cities, including Jaipur and Varanasi, have gone on strike against the overcharging by privately-set charging stations, demanding public charging stations.
Battery swapping is out of the question in most cities because of a non-existent infrastructure. Despite these challenges, e-rickshaws have only grown. But how far can they go?
Battle of the batteries
In an effort to make e-rickshaws more eco-friendly, the Delhi government announced a ban on the registration of Lead-Acid Battery (LAB) e-rickshaws in the Capital in October 2022, allowing e-rickshaws with Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) to register. The move was also aimed at weeding out illegally made e-rickshaws with poor safety standards.
Poor recycling of lead-acid batteries results in life-threatening lead pollution, which makes lithium-ion batteries the safer option. However, only a little over 20% of the e-rickshaws registered in Delhi in 2023 operate on lithium-ion batteries.
Both Burkait and Soni ride e-rickshaws with lead-acid batteries. They have to make a payout of ₹40,000 each year to get new batteries, which is still cheaper than getting lithium-ion batteries which could cost anywhere between ₹56,000-60,000, sources say.
According to WRI, e-rickshaws have largely been operating on lead-acid batteries since their formal introduction on Indian roads in 2010. The reasons for that include a lower upfront cost, mature technology, established resale market, and easy availability. As it is a homegrown battery technology that has a well-developed supply chain, it has emerged as the preferred choice in the e-rickshaw market.
The Delhi HC has even rejected a PIL seeking to continue the use of lead-acid batteries in e-rickshaws.
“Doing a sudden switch over is not the best way to go. There is an established and wide ecosystem for lead-acid batteries services that can fix the battery and supply it in an immediate manner. For lithium-ion batteries, there are significant delays. The battery has to go back to the centralised facility, which takes time, leading to a loss of income for the driver. So such a transition needs to be carefully considered. Build up the ecosystem first before you mandate one and ban another. It’s okay to offer incentives only for lithium-ion batteries though, but on the regulation side, it is good to wait till the ecosystem develops,” suggests Kanuri.
Additionally, the higher up-front cost of lithium-ion batteries, an underdeveloped service network, and heavy dependence on raw material imports are some of the serious hurdles to the adoption of lithium-ion batteries in e-rickshaws.
Ineffective interventions
“Pehle to khoob chala diye sarkaar ne ye e-rickshaw, ab sakhti kar rahe hain. First the government encouraged e-rickshaws and now they are bringing in strict regulations”, laments Soni from Jaipur. The government regulations have been challenging the way he earns his livelihood.
What Soni is referring to here is a series of strict actions undertaken by the city’s Regional Transport Office (RTO) — levying penalties ranging from ₹500 to ₹5,000 on breaking traffic norms and failing to show required certificates like a health certificate for the e-rickshaw, insurance along with driving licence — to let him legally drive his EV on roads.
The Jaipur administration has been cracking down hard on e-rickshaw drivers to contain the situation, which seems to have spiralled out of control, congesting the city roads.
But do such interventions work? “When I would conduct enforcement drives and confiscate e-rickshaws with poor safety standards, I used to face a lot of political pressure, demanding that I let those go. This group forms a substantial vote bank and such drives were never successful,” reveals Chhikara.
In September 2023, Jaipur raised the number of rickshaws plying the city roads from 29,000 to 32,000 —well before the election season in early 2024.
Regulating these e-rickshaws is another challenge. “In order to regulate the number of e-rickshaws, it is crucial to allot city-specific quotas and licensing permits. Establish quotas for the number of e-rickshaws permitted in each city based on its population density, infrastructure capacity, and existing public transport options. Additionally, implement stringent licensing and permit systems to control the number of e-rickshaws. Ensure regular audits and renewals to maintain quality and compliance,” advises Randheer Singh, CEO, ForeSee Advisors Pvt Ltd and Ex-Director, e-Mobility, NITI Aayog.
But a well-thought-out intervention is as important as communicating it properly.
Last year, Jaipur considered dividing zones for e-rickshaws and marking specific routes where the vehicles will ply based on a colour scheme. What followed was confusion amongst the e-rickshaw drivers as well as the media over whether the colour of the e-rickshaw is in question or the colour of a strip that will be given to these EVs depending on their zones.
Talking about the colour of his e-rickshaw, Soni says, “If you follow what they are saying, my zone will be 15 kms away from my house. So, going back and forth between my home and the allocated zone will be easily 30km—draining half the capacity of my battery.”
The intervention was actually about different colour strips. However, there were loopholes as well. For instance, if a passenger has to go from one place to another which is across, say, three zones. So, she will have to change three e-rickshaws to get to one place.
Eventually, the regulation never saw the light of the day because of continuous opposition from stakeholders.
Singh notes that often, there is a lack of coordination among different municipal bodies, transport authorities, and law enforcement. “A unified approach with clear roles and responsibilities can improve the management of e-rickshaws,” he says.
Technology integration is another way to streamline the sector, Singh says. For example, fleet management systems should be created to encourage the adoption of GPS-based fleet management systems for e-rickshaws. This can help in monitoring their movements, preventing overcrowding in specific areas, and improving dispatch efficiency, he says. “Additionally, developing digital platforms for booking e-rickshaws, similar to taxi services, can streamline operations, reduce roadside hailing, and ensure better route management,” says Singh.
Earlier this year, Lucknow attempted to divide zones and allocate e-rickshaws by assigning a QR code to each vehicle to provide details about the driver and routes permitted to them. So far, the plan hasn’t worked. Amritsar planned the same.
Start with the basics
While pointing to a corner in Jaipur Soni says, “Ye dekho yeh tempo walo ka stand hai, aisa hamara stand nahi hai, yeh hamko savari nahi lene dete (See this is the stand for tempos/autos. We don’t have any such designated spots. These guys don’t let us board passengers).”
The lack of basic infrastructure like stands and parking areas force e-rickshaws to occupy roadsides and add to the road congestion. Creating designated parking zones for e-rickshaws can prevent this. “Such zones should be strategically located to serve high-demand areas without disrupting traffic flow. Also, pickup and drop-off points should be established away from main roads to minimise traffic disruption. These points should be well-marked and integrated with other public transport nodes. Upgrade road infrastructure to include dedicated lanes for e-rickshaws and other slow-moving vehicles. This separation can reduce accidents and improve overall traffic flow,” recommends Singh.
Developing an efficient network of charging stations and upgrading road infrastructure to include dedicated lanes for e-rickshaws and other slow-moving vehicles can make a big difference. This separation can reduce accidents and improve overall traffic flow as well.
E-rickshaws were introduced as they are a cleaner way to commute. “So, if more e-rickshaws are being added in the system, it makes sense to take away some polluting vehicles from the road. For instance, some auto rickshaws can be rolled back. While e-rickshaws are not a perfect substitute for autos, the latter can be replaced where commuter distances are short,” suggests Varun.
The incessant mushrooming of the e-rickshaw has led to major civic mobility issues and has raised questions about the government’s planning and infrastructure strategy when it comes to clean mobility and just transition.
However, despite all roadblocks and bumps, e-rickshaws flourished, putting food on the table for many in the times of a deepening unemployment crisis. E-rickshaws also emerged as a solution to rising fuel prices and enabled better commuting. The country desperately needs to form more inclusive and holistic transportation policies to integrate e-rickshaws and all the benefits that come with it. The sooner, the better.
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