Japanese-Sri Lankan joint venture builds electric three-wheelers in the country to replace fossil fuel powered auto-rickshaws
The Finance Ministry of Sri Lanka has reportedly stated that a Japanese-Sri Lankan partnership has built an electric three-wheeler in the country to help replace the over one million fossil-fuel powered auto-rickshaws, known as ‘tuk-tuks.’
“There are several reasons for the shift from the fossil fuel tuk to the electric version, and environmental concerns are chief amongst them,” Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera has been quoted as saying in a Finance Ministry statement.
The Ministry has stated that as part of the Paris agreement, Sri Lanka has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10% in the transport sector by 2020.
“One way to achieve this reduction is to convert the existing vehicles to ‘zero-emission’ vehicles, which would cause minimum levels of pollution and carbon footprint,” Samaraweera has said at the launch of the electric three-wheeler.
The electric three-wheeler was developed by Japan Sri Lanka Comprehensive Partnership secretariat and T-Plan Inc., an electric vehicle engineering firm.
“It is considered to have incorporated some of the cutting-edge technology available in this industry,” Samaraweera has noted.
The first batch of electric three wheelers manufactured in Sri Lanka will be ready by mid-2020, in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the statement said.
“It is very exciting to hear that T-PLAN hopes to export the Sri Lankan made electric vehicles to Japan,” the Minister has said.
“This would be the first of many technology transfer projects that are currently being incubated by the Japan Sri Lanka Comprehensive Partnership secretariat.”
OSL take:
The government of Sri Lanka with its blue-green economic policies has announced the move to promote the use of zero emission vehicles that would move out of fossil fuel. The latest innovation of a Japanese-Sri Lankan joint venture would therefore have a ready market place when the products reach the local market in 2020. Foreign businesses/investors could explore opportunities in the automobile market in Sri Lanka given the zero emission vehicle policy being adopted by the state. They could look at forming joint ventures with local companies to fully penetrate the local market.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20180726/Z_2 |