Bhutan, the small Himalayan kingdom is looking to go greener by replacing all the existing taxis and private cars in their capital city Thimpu with electric models.
Known as a veritable Shangri-La hidden in the shadows of the Himalayas, Bhutan has a long history of taking drastic measures to preserve its environment and to keep its people happy. In fact, one of the country's top priority is something that they call GNH, which stands for 'Gross National Happiness.' GNH has been defined as a metric that measures the wellbeing of the country's citizens as well as the current state of its environment. Given the country's fixation on its GNH, transforming the Thimpu's fleet of taxis to an all-electric automotive force comes as no surprise.
According to a statement from the country's Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, Thimpu will start by replacing their government cars with Nissan's all-electric Leaf, which is priced upwards of $21,000 in the U.S. After the initial changes have been made, all other vehicles in the capital city will be changed to electric models as well.
While this may seem difficult for a small country like Bhutan, they are actually in a unique position favorable to making the shift to electric cars a reality. The country is isolated both geographically as well as culturally and tourists to the country are heavily monitored since they may disrupt the country's way of life. In addition to this, bans on importing foreign products like cars may also help make the transition easier.
The country has also been exploring new legislation to make it easier to import electric vehicles. In addition to this, Bhutan already has a local manufacturing company that builds electric car prototypes. Thunder Motors has been importing parts and assembling electric cars for a while now.
Bhutan, whose annual GDP is slightly less than $2 billion, also has an abundance of hydropower, which means that charging all of these electric vehicles in the future will not be cost prohibitive. This means that a large majority of Thimpu's 120,000-odd residents will be able to drive electric vehicles in the near future.
