EVs make economic sense for us, so why is adoption still slow?

In the early noughties, Dhaka was choking on petrol and octane fumes, and it was then that the government pushed Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as the answer. Initially, very few people believed it would work, as there were few stations and conversions were expensive. However, it wasn’t long before CNG became the default fuel of the city’s transport backbone.

Then came Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). In 2006, autogas, a type of LPG specifically formulated for use in internal combustion engines, entered Bangladesh on a tiny scale. Until 2015, only 12 to 15 autogas stations existed in the entire country, and almost everyone remained ambivalent towards it. Then the government stopped new CNG connections due to gas shortages. By 2024, the country was consuming nearly 17 lakh tonnes of LPG annually, up from just 80,000 tonnes a decade earlier.

Now that we have the Electric Vehicles (EVs), the same doubts we had about the CNG and the LPG have resurfaced. Critics argue that Bangladesh has too few stations, that EVs are too expensive, that the grid isn’t ready, or, worst case scenario, that nobody will convert. Interestingly, we have heard all this before, but now, we have the numbers to challenge these notions.

As of June 1, 2026, diesel stands at Tk 115 per litre, petrol at Tk 140, and octane at Tk 145, the second price hike in six weeks. A typical diesel bus covering 250 km daily burns roughly 71 litres of fuel at those prices, costing around Tk 8,165 per day. If the bus runs every day for a year, the operating cost is close to Tk 28 lakh. Similarly, a petrol car averaging 12 km per litre costs its owner roughly Tk 11.67 per km just in fuel. For a car covering 40 km a day, that is over Tk 1.5 lakh in fuel alone every year. For truck operators, where diesel is the highest single cost on the balance sheet, the pressure is even greater.

Scale that up to the national level, and the picture becomes more unpleasant. According to Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation’s (BPC) annual report, Bangladesh spent $4.1 billion on petroleum product imports in FY 2024-25, with 63.41 percent consumed by the transport sector alone. And that was before the disruptions in the Middle East. Zero Carbon Analytics projected a further $4.8 billion surge in the annual energy import bill due to Strait of Hormuz shipping disruptions.

Meanwhile, the shift has already quietly begun. LightCastle Partners’ EV Adoption Report documents that four-wheeler EV registrations jumped from just 25 units in 2023 to 350 in 2024-2025 after import duties on EVs were set at 89 percent, well below the 150 to 450 percent applied to conventional vehicles. However, the charging infrastructure gap is real, with fewer than 100 public EV charging points compared with some 624 fuel stations.

Even the state itself is quietly placing its bet. BRTC has initiated projects worth Tk 3,450 crore covering 100 electric double-decker AC buses, 200 electric single-decker AC buses, and 55 charging stations. A state transport body committing Tk 3,450 crore to electric buses is a notable signal to pin hopes upon.

On the supply side, SREDA revised its net metering guidelines in September 2025, raising permissible rooftop solar capacity from 70 to 100 percent of sanctioned load and extending eligibility to prepaid and single-phase users for the first time. New buildings above 92.2 square metres must now install solar before receiving a grid connection.

The proposed budget also backs this shift. The total tax burden on EVs priced up to $25,000 will fall to 64 percent, down from 93 percent. EVs up to $50,000 will face an 80 percent burden. Tax incentives for electric buses and trucks have been extended until 2030. Charging stations and EV chargers will see all duties and taxes removed, dropping from 39.75 percent. At the same time, taxes on conventional petrol and diesel cars are going up. This represents a clear signal from the government that their policy frameworks are now pulling in the same direction as the economics.

The research backs the convergence. A 2025 peer-reviewed study published a model of solar-integrated EV charging across Bangladeshi cities and found that renewable energy covered 90.5 percent of total charging energy under net metering, and costs fell by up to 30 percent compared with grid-only setups.

Right now, what we need is not reinvention, but a decision. We decided on CNG when the air became unbreathable and on LPG when the gas ran short. Some would argue that the signal today—fuel prices hitting record highs twice in six weeks, a $4.1 billion annual petroleum import bill, and a transport sector that consumes 63 percent of every litre we buy—may be louder than the previous moments combined.

The author acknowledges meaningful guidance and insights from Sayed Joynul Abedin, chief executive officer at Akij Venture Group.

Nazma Sultana manages the business development of Akij Renewable Energy and Automobiles Limited.

Views expressed in this article are the author's own. 

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