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PESHAWAR: Electric rickshaws are easy and fun to drive. They are smaller, featuring a cleaner design, with a power electrical motor enabling fast acceleration. It also ensures that the vehicle does not emit noise, smoke, or any hazardous gases.

These innovative rickshaws— also called E-Rickshaws— are the environmentally-friendly tri-wheeler solution for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's meandering roads. Their sleek bodies and pollution-free trails will be a welcome change to roads teeming with noisy, smoke-emitting auto-rickshaws. Once approved by KP's transport department, they will hit the streets of Peshawar, and eventually, to the rest of the province.

In developing countries, vehicles are routinely replaced or upgraded, but the average vehicle in Pakistan is over 15 years old. Zubair explains why this is another problem: "Older vehicles emit 20 times as many hydrocarbons as an average vehicle," he says. "They also emit 25 times more carbon monoxide, and 3.6 times more nitro oxides."

On the streets, this means that rickshaws routinely leave behind poisonous blankets of smoke, without realising the damage they are doing to their environment.

Enter the e-rickshaw

With no petrol, CNG and mobile-oil requirements, electric rickshaws need minimum maintenance. The E-rickshaw, which is assembled in China and Japan and then imported to Pakistan, can accommodate three to four people and can go as fast as 40 to 45 kilometers per hour. With increasing incidents of gas cylinder blasts in rickshaws, e-rickshaws are safe for travelling.

While the transport department has tested and approved the vehicles, confirming that the E-Rickshaw functions smoothly even in rain, rickshaw-drivers are a bit skeptical. "We are poor people," one driver says. "What will we do with the old rickshaws? If the government helps us out in this matter, we will welcome these vehicles."

Currently, a driver with a permit in Peshawar can buy an auto-rickshaw for as little as Rs300,000. Compared to this, the E-Rickshaw will be significantly more cost-efficient. It is estimated to launch at a cost of Rs240,000 for a new rickshaw.

How it works

The E-Rickshaws are assembled in countries like China and Japan, from where they are imported. —Photo by the author

For charging, the E-Rickshaw requires any normal outlet (100V-240V), similar to the ones used for charging cell-phones. The battery can be charged upto 80 per cent in two hours, while a full charge takes seven hours.

“It saves fuel and CNG, and is more economical than the regular rickshaw,” says Ali, the examiner of motor vehicles at the transport department. The vehicle has been developed keeping low cost in mind— aside from the fact that it comes with zero carbon emissions, because of its low maintenance fee, it can be driven in both rural and urban areas.

An E-Rickshaw charged at 80pc battery, for example, can be driven for 50km. "Free special route permits will be issued to electric rickshaws for one year," adds Ali, explaining how the government is planning to launch two prototypes: the mini-cab, and the loader.

A prototype of the mini-cab, which can carry five people at a time. —Photo by the author

A prototype of the loader. —Photo by the author

The mini-cab comes with comfortable driving and passenger seats, and includes a luggage compartment and crystal light. It can carry five passengers comfortably at a time, and runs for 150km on a single charge. The battery comes with a 14-month warranty.

The loader, which charges quicker, comes with a driving seat and a passenger seat, and an open luggage compartment at the back. Although people can pile into the compartment, the loader is likely to be used for transporting goods and animals. Its battery comes with a 18-month warranty,

An official at the transport department who tested the e-rickshaw says it rolled silently on the streets. "People were making videos from their cell phones," he recalls, "They are not used to seeing a tri-wheeler car on the road."