E-Rickshaws Reshape Mobility
For many years, in India, rickshaws were powered entirely by human effort, with pedal-propelled tricycles taking passengers for a small number of rupees while the drivers had to put in ten- to twelve-hour shifts for very little money. This situation has changed rapidly. Electric motors are now in control of a large part of this sector, and the figures make it clear. The number of registered e-rickshaws in India has risen to about 1.8 million, an increase from the 78,700 there were in 2021, and a huge number of them operate without any formal registration at all. What used to be one of the country's most difficult jobs is now being gradually transformed by battery power.
Affordability Drives Adoption
One of the reasons why this change is so important is that it seems very ordinary in practice. Outside railway stations and in busy market areas, e-rickshaws are a common sight, and now an increasing number of them can be booked directly via Uber, just like the auto services. Although these vehicles are about the same size as auto rickshaws, they provide only basic weather protection and reach a maximum speed of nearly 25 km/h, much below the 50 to 60 km/h that motorised auto rickshaws are capable of. Nevertheless, this compromise is of little importance to passengers who want a cheap and quick trip around town, and it is even less of an issue for drivers since they now have a simpler and more inclusive way of getting into the business, a route that has also allowed more women to join.
Mobility Economy Gets Rewired
What sets this transition apart from EV growth elsewhere in the world is where the vehicles actually come from. Much like the pedal rickshaws before them, most e-rickshaws are not rolling out of large automotive plants. They are built in small sheds, local garages and makeshift workshops scattered across the country. According to BloombergNEF, this informal manufacturing base accounts for at least 70% of India's three-wheeled EV sales, a figure that includes both e-rickshaws and auto rickshaws. That single statistic reshapes how we should think about India's EV economy, less a story of big brand rollouts and more a story of thousands of small, local producers scaling electrification from below.
Everyday Mobility Leads Electrification
Put together, these details point to an EV transition that looks nothing like the one playing out in most other markets. It is being built ride by ride, workshop by workshop, and driver by driver, rather than through a handful of headline product launches. E-rickshaws are now eating into territory once dominated by auto rickshaws, apps are folding them into everyday ride booking, and a largely informal manufacturing ecosystem is quietly producing EVs at a scale few outsiders would expect.
As adoption keeps climbing, India's clearest EV growth story may keep coming from its streets, not its showrooms.