Four more e-vehicle charging stations have been installed in Kathmandu Valley, taking the number of such facilities to five. The first station was set up on the Nepal Electricity Authority office premises at Ratna Park last month.

The four charging stations have been added at Naxal, Thapathali, Sitapaila and at the National Planning Commission inside Singha Durbar. All of the devices are already in operation.

The stations have been installed by Chinese electric vehicle producing company BYD Auto in association with the NEA. “We have been setting up such charging stations in a bid to promote electronic vehicles in Nepal,” said Biraj Adhikari, general manager of CIMEX, the authorised distributor of BYD Auto in Nepal. “These stations are being installed for public convenience. As these devices charge up the vehicles for an entire week at once, the customers needn’t buy a charging device.”

The company is planning to double the number of such charging stations within this year. Such stations will also be set up in Chitwan, Pokhara, Bhairahawa and other parts of the country later in a bid to facilitate the use electric vehicles in the country, according to Adhikari.

“We will be expanding such stations in different parts of the country. We are also open to working in cooperation with any organisation, government offices if they wish to have such stations at their premises,” he added. 

Under the agreement between BYD Auto and the NEA, the company will be responsible for the maintenance and operations of these stations and the state utility will be providing the power. A charging station, which has the charging capacity of 40KW, costs nearly Rs1.5 million.

According to the company, these charging stations can charge customers based on two tariffs—per unit consumption and smart card system in future.

“The Naxal station, for example, shows the total consumption of electricity so we can charge accordingly. Otherwise, we can also introduce credit card system which allows the customers to make payment by swiping the card,” said Adhikari.

He added that the company was also planning to launch a mobile app that informs the customers about stations available for charging and their schedules.