New policy mandatory for all electric vehicles

Staff Correspondent: The Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges has drafted a new policy on the registration and movement of electric vehicles, which includes an obligation for existing electric vehicles on the road to be converted into a specific safer model. The draft policy prioritizes buses, trucks, and private cars as electric vehicles, and requires existing unsafe electric vehicles to be converted into safe models through authorized institutions in order to be able to continue operating on the road.
According to the proposed policy, battery-operated bicycles, rickshaws, and auto-rickshaws will not be considered electric vehicles, and there is a ban on the movement of slow-moving electric vehicles on national and regional highways. The responsibility for electric vehicle charging will be left to the power division, which will decide on the location and number of charging stations, and a separate policy for three-wheelers will be developed.
The policy also addresses various other aspects of electric vehicle regulation, including authority, contract carriage, route permit, fitness certificate, passenger and goods transport committee, stage carriage, economic life, trustee board, lifetime, joint venture finance, and more. The draft policy has been sent to the cabinet department for approval, and the views of all concerned parties have been taken into account in its development.
The policy was developed following an inter-ministerial meeting held on February 6, and a discussion meeting with various stakeholders, including electric vehicle manufacturers, assemblers, importers, and battery manufacturers, on February 15. The feedback and recommendations from these meetings were taken into consideration in the finalization of the policy.
Professor Ziaur Rahman of BUET’s Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department commented on the policy, noting that while electric vehicles are necessary to keep pace with the world, the country still lacks the necessary infrastructure for these vehicles.