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They chug along on three wheels, at 40 kilometers per hour: tuk-tuks. 1.2 million of them transport passengers on Sri Lankan roads. They are still mainly powered by gasoline or natural gas – but possibly not for much longer.
Over the next five years, 500,000 autorickshaws are to be converted or replaced in the island state in the Indian Ocean.
Azusa Kubota, United Nations Development Programme:
"Energy shortages, rising energy costs, the climate emergency and global warming make it necessary to push ahead with the decarbonisation of our society and economy. Here in Sri Lanka, it is above all the ongoing economic crisis that makes it necessary to invest in renewable energies and to phase out the use of fossil fuels."
Sri Lanka is in the midst of a severe economic, political and social crisis. Last year, the government was unable to finance key imports such as food, fuel and medicines. The inflation rate is more than 50 percent, and food prices are high. One-third of households are affected by food insecurity and skip meals, according to the UN World Food Programme.
For months, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest against the shortcomings and mismanagement of politics. In July 2022, an angry crowd even stormed the mansion of the then-president.
Last summer, fuel became so scarce that the government imposed a two-week ban on sales. In front of the gas stations in the capital, kilometer-long queues of cars formed.
Today there is gasoline again, but rationed and only with a QR code registration. For many tuk-tuk drivers, the quantities they can refuel are too small to transport customers. They have to give up their business.
Battery-electric tuk-tuks would relieve the burden on taxi operators, and not only that - say the creators of the pilot project.
Laheel Subasinghe, university lecturer:
"The main advantage of an electric tricycle is that they do not emit harmful gases. In addition, they are good for the wallet because gasoline costs can be saved. You only need to charge the electric vehicles with electricity, which is cheaper than gasoline."
Not all tuk-tuks are to be converted directly to electric propulsion. The pilot project envisages that an initial 200 vehicles will be converted – financed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). If this phase goes well, the UNDP and the Sri Lankan government are working out plans for the conversion of more vehicles.
Not all rickshaw drivers like that. In particular, the range of tuk-tuks is the subject of discussion.
Jagath Pushkumara, rickshaw driver:
"They say that you can only drive 80 to 100 kilometers per charge with electric tuk-tuks. What happens if there is no gas station nearby? If we drive a 150-kilometer route, we stop halfway. This is an unsuccessful project.«
Long journeys by tuk-tuk are part of everyday life for the people of Sri Lanka - public buses and trains are often only second choice for them. According to a 2017 study, this is due to the flexibility and security offered by tuk-tuks. And because it allows people to reach their goal quickly.
In the future, we will even have more private transport, say mobility researchers. However, its significance will change. From their point of view, tuk-tuks only make sense for the "first and last mile". However, the project does not take this into account.
Andreas Knie, Social Science Research Center Berlin:
"Replacing fossil fuels with battery-electric ones is good per se. And making flexible offers, i.e. as the tuk-tuks represent, makes sense as long as they also have a public transport structure behind them. So if you just replace your own car or device with another device, so to speak, you won't get far, even if it makes the battery electric or later even without a driver. That will be the next stage of innovation."
The mobility researcher sees no problem with charging the vehicles: taxis do not drive 24 hours at a time and there are always times when they look still.
Andreas Knie, Social Science Research Center Berlin:
"You need an infrastructure that is very flexible, just when the vehicles are only parked for a short time, with a few kilowatt hours to recharge the batteries again and again, and of course you also need fast-charging stations for really good, optimized operation, where you can charge vehicles in 10 to 15 minutes if necessary. However, they are very prerequisite. Of course, you also need a correspondingly upgraded distribution network to create all this. But that should be possible, because the battery sizes are not so intense with these devices. You don't drive a truck."
The electricity for charging must come from mostly renewable sources so that the e-tuk-tuks are really more environmentally friendly than combustion vehicles. However, around half of Sri Lanka's electricity is still generated with the help of fossil fuels.
Just replacing the technology of the tuk-tuks is not enough. More is needed to sustainably transform the transport sector. Decarbonization in the Global South has only just begun.