Electric vehicles (EVs) are an effective solution to air pollution caused by vehicular emissions in Nepal. The widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) has been recognized by the Government of Nepal (GoN) as an important priority and Nepal’s second enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) target 25% of all private passenger vehicles, including two-wheeler sales, to be electric by 2025. However, various challenges limit the wide adoption of EVs, including limited availability of charging infrastructure, lack of consumer financing, frequently changing regulations to low consumer awareness.

To uncover the opportunities and challenges faced by the electric vehicle sector in Nepal, One to Watch conducted a round table discussion on 2nd March 2023 with representatives from the EV sector. The roundtable discussion had participants from prominent electric vehicle trading companies such as Sipradi Trading, Laxmi Intercontinental, Thee Go, Eco Infinity (NIU e-scooters) and iHub Pvt. Ltd (Segway Nepal) to name a few.

Engaging discourses on challenges and opportunities for wide adoption of electric vehicles, current state of charging infrastructure, existing government policy/regulation and their impact on EV sector, EV retrofitting and conversion and gaps in electric vehicle financing were carried out in the roundtable discussion. The key highlights of the roundtable discussion is presented below: