3-Wheelers (3W) form typical 1-2% of overall city vehicle stocks for most cities in India, and act as an important public mass transport mode. With increasing urbanization, more focus on Transit Orient Development (TOD) and strengthening public transit systems including new Metro rails etc. the importance of 3Ws for first and last mile have further increased.

Current popular variants of 3Ws are those running on petrol, diesel, CNG and electric via lead acid batteries. Current version of lead acid e-Rickshaws serves better economics compared to ICE versions, but have lower speed limits, and also pose environmental challenges (arising from lead recycling).

The new Lithium Ion Batteries (LIB) run e-Rickshaws have advantage of 1) atleast 50% lower battery weight 2) longer battery life 3) fast charging option 4) lower battery degradation 5) higher mileage (kms/day) allowing more income opportunity 6) higher performance in terms of top-speed, acceleration etc. 7) and lower total cost of ownership (TCO). LIB e-3Ws also comes with higher speed options, usually called e-Autos.

There are emerging new players who are taking up 3W Aggregator roles, including that for e-3Ws. While some doing pure app based demand and supply match making, there are some who getting into end-to-end ownership of assets and full fledge charging eco-system, including having drivers on-rolls.