"Absolutely useless"

Kumar got consumed by the hype:

Ashok Kumar switched to driving an electric rickshaw taxi from working at a printing press three years ago, after hearing the New Delhi government was offering subsidies. However, he never got the promised rebate on his $1,770 electric rickshaw.

Kumar sets out each day acutely aware that he has just until lunchtime to earn as much as he can.

Then he has to rush home to charge his vehicle. It takes 12 hours of charging to get a running time of five hours, he says.

That's horribly inefficient on so many levels. With petrol, he could've got five hours of run-time from five minutes of "charging". If you're rich, then electric vehicles are a luxury toy. If you're not, then good luck since the tech and infrastructure is still primitive.