Hyperdrive
India’s Rickshaw Revolution Leaves China in the Dust
There are more e-rickshaws in India than battery-powered passenger cars in China
An electric-vehicle revolution is gaining ground in India, and it has nothing to do with cars.
The South Asian nation is home to about 1.5 million battery-powered, three-wheeled rickshaws – a fleet bigger than the total number of electric passenger cars sold in China since 2011. But while the world’s largest auto market dangled significant subsidies to encourage purchases of battery-powered cars, India’s e-movement hardly got a hand from the state.