Abstract
Growing concerns about climate change and air pollution have provided a global impetus to move away from fossil fuel-based transport towards less carbon-intense mobility. This shift is associated with opportunities, challenges as well as intended and unintended consequences. Developing countries face greater challenges with regards to technology and infrastructure, consumer concerns and government action. However, these are understudied. This research project explores the transition towards e-mobility in Nepal, a South Asian developing country landlocked between India and China, focusing on global influences, national development and individual perceptions. Vehicle importing countries like Nepal are often obliged to comply with vehicle manufacturing countries and their policies which is why understanding the nexus of their e-mobility transition with the global dynamics makes a good sense in addition to their domestic developments. To this end, I used publicly available data on global trade of used vehicles, analysed interviews with key informants and carried out surveys with two-wheeler users in Nepal. I first studied the global trade of used cars. My research shows that vehicle exporting countries sold, and continue to sell, vehicles relying on internal combustion engines to developing countries. I demonstrate that countries, including those that have legally banned the imports of used vehicles, are also at the receiving end. This is because – as the case of Nepal shows – such countries find it hard to protect their borders effectively. As a consequence, developing countries bear a large share of the environmental burden associated with internal combustion engine technology. I then zoomed in to explore domestic developments towards e-mobility in Nepal. To this end, I studied three factors in more depth: direct and indirect influences from a powerful neighbouring country, India, on public policy and market developments in Nepal; the activities of international donors and investors in the country; and the role of governing authorities trying to protect their position in a changing environment. I finally looked into the role of consumers. I find that there is a significant gap between government priorities in the field of e-mobility and views held by users of two-wheelers, the most common means of transport in Nepal. I conclude that the transition towards e-mobility is likely to take much longer in developing countries. This is due to the role of the global used vehicle trade, conflicting policy objectives at the national level, in particular between economic and environmental goals, and resulting tensions between perceptions held at the individual level and the requirement to transition towards more sustainable modes of transport. By highlighting such political and socio-economic obstacles faced by developing countries, this research contributes to the discourses on transport decarbonisation and just transition.
