How Nepal Became a Leader in Electric Vehicle Sales

In 2025, 73% of all new passenger vehicles sold in Nepal were electric. This story was not widely circulated then, but it sure would make news today. The Himalayan country of Nepal, which imports all of its fuel from India has been impacted by the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, as a result of which it has mandated a 2-day weekend making it compulsory for all government offices and education institutes to remain closed on Saturdays and Sundays.

Graph below: Top 10 countries worldwide listed by their share of EVs in new car sales for 2025 (Image source: Visual Capitalist)

In a country with unlimited rugged terrains, and quickly changing road elevation, one would be tempted to think that a true 4×4 vehicle like a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado would be the preferred mode of transport. Sure, for those who can afford one. Nepal has a population of 31 million and an extremely low vehicle ownership of just 84 cars per 1000 people. It currently has around 6 million registered vehicles, and the choice of car for most have been ICE vehicles till last year when the trend changed dramatically. For context, New Zealand which has a much lower population of 5.5 million people has a much higher car ownership of 817 cars per 1000 people but a much lower EV sales share of 8% of all new cars. Nepal had a similar share of EVs in 2019.

Image below: Note the change in elevation from under 100m up to 5000m within a distance of 100km (Image source: topographic-map.com)

In 2025, for the first time the top five best selling cars in Nepal were all battery-electric-vehicles (BEV). Tata’s Tigor EV, known as the Xpres-T in Nepal was the best selling car, followed by BYD Dolphin, MG S5 EV, BYD Atto 3 and Tata Punch EV.

Below are the photos of each car in the same order – clock wise from top left (Image courtesy: respective owners)

Summary: Two factors accelerated Nepal’s shift from ICE to electric vehicles in a matter of 5 years. Aggressive increase in import duties for ICE vehicles and abundant sources of clean and affordable hydroelectric energy. If Nepal can do it, can other countries do the same? Ethiopia is another country that followed a very similar trajectory under similar circumstances. You can read my post here if you are interested in Ethiopia’s transformation.

Image below: A Tata Nexon EV charging at a public charger in Kathmandu (Image source: Wikipedia)