Call to promote electric vehicles in Bangladesh
Lightcastle Partners, in collaboration with global consulting firm Ricardo, organised a virtual event for promoting EV-adoption in the country
Business consultants called for the adoption of electric vehicles (EV) in Bangladesh as they are cost-efficient and greener, compared to Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles run on fossil fuels such as gasoline.
"We have been seeing the emergence of electric vehicles not just in European countries but in Asia too. We are hopeful that Bangladesh will soon join this green revolution," said Ivdad Ahmed Khan Mojlish, co-founder & managing director of LightCastle Partners, addressing the event "Pioneer EV Businesses in Bangladesh".
Lightcastle Partners, a business consulting firm in Bangladesh, and Ricardo, a global strategic consulting firm, jointly organised the virtual Thursday event aimed at creating awareness and promoting the pioneering EV-adoption cases in Bangladesh, according to a press release.
Mate Antosik, programme coordinator at Ricardo, shared the overview of the programme. Fahreen Hannan, founder of Dhaka Cast, Jakirul Islam, senior vice president of Bank Asia, and Syed Saif, founder and CEO of Lily, also spoke at the event.
Totally or partially fueled by electricity, EVs are often considered to be the most sustainable form of motorised transportation. From an economic standpoint, EVs and hybrid vehicles provide cost savings as an incentive over traditional fossil fuel vehicles, they observed.
They said, in the context of Bangladesh, EVs hold an answer to solving the power overcapacity conundrum, which can be mitigated through the adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles.
According to the Bangladesh Power Development Board, only 40% of the power generation capacity is currently being utilised in Bangladesh. Introducing EVs and hybrid vehicles in the country can reduce pressure on fossil fuel demand.
This event was part of the UK Government-funded ''Road to a Green Bangladesh'' project, which is surveying the local uptake of electric vehicles under current circumstances.
At the event, the organisers said 30 Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSMEs) case studies were conducted to survey the business potential for EVs in Bangladesh, to specifically point out the challenges, prospects, and risks in implementing the EV business model in Bangladesh.
Five prospective startups --Advanced Dynamics, JoBike, DhakaCast, Lily, and SOLshare—expressed interest, presenting future plans and the benefits of introducing EVs nationwide.
"Ricardo, with its consortium members IDCOL, Light Castle Partners, Policy Exchange Bangladesh, and Hivos Energia, has received funding for the project from the UK Government Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) under its UK PACT (Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions) Green Recovery Challenge Fund (GRCF)."
