For the first time in Sri Lanka, a fully equipped factory for producing brand new electric three wheelers was opened at the Maradana Railway Department Warehouse premises.
The Minister listens to details regarding the production
of electric three-wheelers.
The Vega Engineering Company, which produced Sri Lanka’s first electric supercar under the Vega (“Speed”) brand name, recently opened the new factory complex for the production of electric three wheelers and the conversion of existing Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) three-wheelers to run on electricity under the patronage of Minister of Transport, Highways and Mass Media, Dr. Bandula Gunawardena.
The entire production process of the ELEKTRATEQ three-wheeler of the Vega company, is carried out in this centrally located factory premises. This is not a Completely Knocked Down (CKD) re-assembly operation (used by most other local car and motorcycle assembly plants) as no parts are imported.
This factory is equipped with a lot of technical devices, including machines used for cutting and folding plates and battery production machines, which operate automatically using state-of-the-art technology. Some of these three wheelers are already plying on the country’s roads. This project also saves foreign exchange, as all components are made in Sri Lanka.
In addition, this factory has all the facilities to convert a three-wheeler currently running on petrol or diesel to run on electric batteries within just two hours. Even now, a project to convert 100 ICE three wheelers to Battery Electric power in a month in conjunction with a private financial institution is being implemented in this factory. Since the three wheeler battery pack is small (unlike in a big electric car or SUV), an electric three wheeler can easily be charged overnight using a household socket.
Minister Dr. Gunawardena also instructed the officials to make arrangements to convert the registered three-wheelers engaged in passenger transport services near the Makumbura Multimodal Transport Centre (MMTC) to run on electric batteries.
With the further expansion of the production capacity of the factory, the Minister instructed the Motor Transport Department Commissioner to take steps to employ an officer from his department to carry out legal activities including the re-registration of three-wheelers converted to electricity within the premises of the factory. However, all brand new electric three wheelers are registered under the current ABV registration numbers, assigned to other ICE three wheelers as well.
The Minister also instructed to take steps to denote a special colour for the number plate to identify the electric three-wheelers in Sri Lanka in the future and also a program to paint electric three-wheelers in a unique colour to indicate their environmental friendliness. These three wheelers are likely to be popular among tourists and local travellers who are conscious of the damage caused to the environment by ICE vehicles.
Ranjith Rubasinghe, Secretary of the Ministry of Transport and Highways, Dr. Harsha Subasinghe, President of Vega Engineering Company, General Manager of Railways H. M. K. W. Bandara, Motor Traffic Commissioner Nishantha Anuruddha Weerasinghe and a group of officials were present.
