The cabinet’s decision on April 5 to make legal arrangements to enable the conversion of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles to Electric Vehicle (EV) marks a turning point in the country’s rapidly progressing EV landscape, finally dismantling the archaic legal barriers of the 1992 Motor Vehicle Act to permit the ICE-to-EV conversion. If we look back at the history in brief and keep aside the first drive-train conversion that happened in 1993, when Bikram Tempo was converted into Safa Tempo, engineers at a private firm, TheeGo, had converted a Daewoo Matiz and presented it in the NADA Auto Show in 2019. Thereafter, institutions like Kathmandu University and the National Innovation Centre have been demonstrating converted vehicles. However, the policy hurdles limited these conversions to demonstration or proof-of-concept only.

The policy shift announced by the cabinet’s decision represents a hard-fought victory for local pioneers who have been actively advocating conversion or retrofitting old vehicles as a path toward technological self-reliance. However, as we celebrate this leap toward reducing our dependence on imported fossil fuels and internal capacity building, we must confront a sobering reality: The current regulatory vacuum regarding electrical safety in converted vehicles. Without immediate, stringent standards for battery integration, management and high-voltage circuitry, this victory risks being reduced from public benefit to a fire hazard on our congested streets.

The challenges come in two-fold: technical gap and institutional under-capacity. Let's dive into the technical gap first. Any wheel coupled to an electrical motor will rotate when the motor is supplied with electrical power. While this may sound like simple physics, converting a vehicle from fuel to electric is a feat of engineering that far exceeds a simple engine swap. Most ICE vehicles may not be structurally engineered to carry the heavy weight of the batteries, which is about 30 percent of the total weight of the car. Such a massive shift in weight distribution can alter the centre of gravity, potentially compromising the braking and stability of the vehicle, especially on the roads of our terrain. This physical mismatch would be exacerbated by backyard conversions. There are several kits available on the market that can be used to convert an ICE vehicle to an EV. But with such conversion kits, one can neither guarantee the use of certified components, for instance, standard motor, battery, controller, Battery Management Systems (BMS), or shielded high-voltage winding; nor assure the efficiency of the new converted vehicle, as these kits are often general-purpose kits which are not optimised for a particular vehicle. For different types of vehicles, the components required for conversion depend on the size, weight and power of the vehicle. In the absence of rigorous certifications and the use of over- and undersized components, these retrofittings are highly susceptible to thermal runaway of the batteries, leading to catastrophe. Without addressing these technical hurdles, a converted EV is less a sustainable solution and more a volatile risk.

In addition to the engineering challenges lies a significant institutional or infrastructural gap that questions our domestic readiness for high-voltage retrofitting. While the workshops around the nation are adept at conventional mechanical repairs, the number of those who possess the precision instruments that can measure and certify that the high-voltage system in the converted vehicle is safe is not known. While the country has a wealth of skilled mechanics, electrical engineers with high-voltage certifications and specialisation in EV drivetrains and power electronics can be counted on fingers. Do we have enough first responders with skills and training to suppress the fire caused by thermal runaway of Lithium-ion batteries? The answers to these questions are a must for the sustainable implementation of the cabinet’s decision.

Two weeks ago, some news media reported an EV catching fire at Tribhuvan International Airport. The manufacturer of the vehicle was a known international brand. Similarly, over the past years, several cases of fires have been reported in EV cars manufactured by top international brands. Even global EV giants that invest billions of dollars in Research and Development and sophisticated laboratory testing have been forced to issue massive battery recalls due to fire risks. If these rigorously engineered systems developed under strictest global quality standards and controls are still prone to failure, then the locally assembled systems in resource-constrained environments face an exponentially higher risk profile. Should a converted vehicle suffer a bad fate of fire-related failure while on the road, who is to blame? Is it the government body that issued a generic permit, the workshop that performed the technical labour or the owner who agreed to the conversion? Therefore, this necessitates the need for a clear legal framework defining these responsibilities.

The Department of Transport Management, tasked with drafting a specific Retrofitting Procedure, should replace the general practice of issuing vague guidelines. It needs to provide an exhaustive list of technical codes and standards governing the high-voltage wiring insulation, battery systems, component selection, sizing and a methodology of mandatory safety testing. To prevent backyard conversions, a retrofitting license exclusive to certain certified workshops equipped with advanced diagnostic tools and certified EV engineers authorised to perform these conversions needs to be implemented. In a country where road safety is already a huge problem, we cannot afford to treat the electrification of the old fleet as a trial-and-error experiment. Therefore, the roadmap of the authority must be paved with stringent regulations before implementation.

We should not let fear hold back the creativity and the dream of our local innovators and engineers that have worked so hard until this point, when their enthusiasm is at its peak due to the cabinet’s decision, but neither should we let collective enthusiasm blind us to the inherent risk of unregulated conversion. ICE-to-EV conversion represents a unique opportunity for Nepal to jump into a more self-reliant and innovative green mobility solution. However, the sustainability of this transition depends entirely on the safety we lay today. Let’s collectively look forward to a sustainable and self-reliant mobility solution that is safe and technically validated.