In India, some 93% of the country’s three-wheel auto-rickshaws run on fossil fuels, and many of the ones that are electric are powered by lead-acid batteries with life spans of just six to nine months. Power Global’s eZee module, a lithium-ion battery that lasts at least five years, can be swapped with a charged unit at any of the company’s growing network of kiosks. It’s the winner of the developing-world technology category of Fast Company’s 2022 World Changing Ideas Awards.
“We can offer 25% to 35% cost savings per day for the drivers—which is huge when you’re making somewhere between $5 and $10 a day,” says Power Global founder Porter Harris.