Nury Vittachi (20 March 2009) should really examine the position of electric vehicles in Sri Lanka. Here, electric bicycles are quite popular, especially in the dry zone, where petrol sheds are few and far between. Electric cars are less popular and electric commercial vehicles are almost non-existent. Sri Lanka is well suited for electric vehicles, since we have a fairly good supply of mains electricity. Their use would cut down pollution in the cities – especially Colombo (where it is difficult to travel in a non-air-conditioned vehicle).

Electric propulsion is especially suited to public transport. In recognition of this, the Minister of Urban Development Dinesh Gunawardena inaugurated a special electric van service to Sethsiripaya. This pilot service should be expanded and extended to buses. Older readers will recall the very pleasant trolleybus service that existed in Colombo up to the 1960s – this experience could be replicated with battery-driven buses. The CTB should find it fairly easy to make quick changes of batteries.

Another idea which should be pursued is the conversion of trishaws to electric propulsion. The drivers would save considerably on fuel and (we hope) pass part of the saving onto the passengers! The local authorities who currently provide parking slots for trishaws could introduce metered battery-charging outlets at these places, so the trishaws could be ‘topped up’ while waiting for hires.

However, there are many barriers put in the way of electric vehicles in this country. For example, take the regulations concerning the licensing of mopeds. These are defined as vehicles capable of being driven using pedals and having internal combustion engines of under 50 cubic centimetres capacity and do not require a road licence. Theoretically, electric mopeds are not exempt from this classification, since they do not have internal combustion engines. In fact, for a long time electric vehicles could not be licensed and hence could not be driven on the roads of Sri Lanka.

A local designer struggled for many years to allow his products to be licensed. Actually, these are part and parcel of the regulations that exist in Sri Lanka which stifle local manufactures but make it easy for importers. For example, this writer was involved for many years in the manufacture of automotive spare parts, but found that the import of finished parts was cheaper and easier than the import of the raw materials necessary for making them. Indeed, some motor spares were coming in as parts of milk centrifuges used in the dairy industry!