Sundar Yatayat to assemble electric vehicles in country

Kathmandu, December 1

With an aim to promote and manufacture cheap electric vehicles (EVs), Sundar Yatayat, a private company, has started the process to establish an assembly plant for electric two-wheelers and four-wheelers in Rupandehi district.

Sundar Auto Engineering has started the preliminary works for setting up such an assembly plant in collaboration with Suchawa Gohang Automobiles, a Chinese company.

As per Bhesh Bahadur Thapa, chairman of Sundar Yatayat, the company will have 20 per cent stake in the assembly plant while the Chinese firm will own 80 per cent stake.

The company has already acquired 16 bighas of land in the Butwal Industrial Zone for the purpose.

“We held talks with related authorities like the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation and the Investment Board Nepal for the approval and they have approved our proposal,” informed Thapa. “We will soon establish the assembly plant.”

“We have plans to inaugurate the plant within six months,” Thapa said, adding that in the first phase the company will assemble electric two-wheelers and gradually start process to assemble electric four-wheelers in long run.

As per him, the company will now request Nepal Electricity Authority for a dedicated feeder connection for the factory in the industrial zone.

The company has informed that it will import the necessary parts for the electric vehicles from China and then assemble the vehicles, which will be the first of its kind in this category in Nepal. Previously, a Korean firm had shown interest to assemble diesel engine operated four-wheelers but that plan has still not kicked off.

Earlier, on August 29, the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation had formulated the ‘operational guideline of electric vehicle and establishment of charging stations’ for the operation and promotion of electric vehicles in the country.

As per the guidelines, domestic EV consumers have been defined as households that are receiving electricity through 11 kVA transmission lines; ‘other’ consumers receive electricity from 33 kVA transmission lines, while industrial consumers receive electricity from above 66 kVA lines to charge their EVs.