Taxi drivers who drive electric vehicles say lack of adequate charging points and having to wait long hours to get access to a charging point are hampering their business. Taxi drivers say the increase in the number of electric vehicles in the country has further strained the limited number of charging points. There are almost 500 electric vehicles in the country today.
The government started an initiative to import electric vehicles in 2014 to help reduce the country’s dependency on fossil fuels.
According to taxi drivers, despite increasing number of electric vehicle imports, the number of charging points remained the same.
Today, half of the electric vehicles in the country are taxis. Taxi drivers say some broken charging points are left without repairs making the matter worse.
Some drivers share experiences of spending a night in the car in order to get their vehicles charged.
“Most EV taxi drivers use charging points in Thimphu as charging points are not installed in every district. 95 per cent of the drivers use services from here. The greatest difficulty is not having adequate charging points. In Thimphu, we only have four charging stations and there are almost 200 electric vehicles in Thimphu alone,” said Guru Tshering, electric vehicle taxi driver.
“When we go for charging, we have to wait in line as other vehicles would already be charging their vehicles. Because of that, we lose our passengers to other drivers. Sometimes, we have to tow our vehicles when battery gets exhausted. If the project or the Department of Surface Transport install charging points at certain points, we would be very thankful,” said Tshering Norbu, another electric vehicle taxi driver.
According to an official from the Department of Surface Transport, one charging point in Thimphu’s Dangrina is completed and will soon be operational.
He also added that the department has finished installing charging stations in 17 districts. However, taxi drivers say that some of these stations have not started operating as yet.
The official also added that a charging station in Trashigang’s Wamrong town and at Tingtibi in Zhemgang will be installed in a month’s time.
Ugyen Dorji
Edited by Sherub Dorji
