Chinese duo power Bangladesh's rickshaws with battery start-up

A young company created by chance is trying to transform urban transportation in the world's most populous region.

Harvard graduate students Nicole Mao, 33, and Zhu Yiwei, 32, have been building one of Bangladesh's hottest start-ups for three years after getting stuck in the country during the Covid-19 pandemic. Their battery-swapping network for electric rickshaws is surging in popularity and will reach 1,000 stations in 2025, mainly servicing the country's millions of three-wheeled taxi vehicles.

The duo's firm, Tiger New Energy, is making rickshaw drivers' lives easier by allowing them to swap to fresh batteries on the go. Drivers pay a fee for the service, but the time saved allows them to make more trips and earn more revenue.

"There's immense demand," said Ms Mao, the Dhaka-based start-up's chief executive officer, in an interview. "As the economy grows, more people are leaving rural areas for work opportunities in the cities. That is creating demand for mobility."

While the tuk-tuks of India and Thailand are mainly powered by gasoline or natural gas, the three-wheelers dominating the streets of Dhaka and other Bangladeshi cities are mostly electric. However, charging takes time and disposal of used lead-acid batteries creates health and environmental hazards.