Sustainability Award
Deloitte collaborated with 2021 Earthshot Prize finalists SOLshare, a Dhaka-based GreenTech start-up, to aid them in their mission to converge the energy and transport sector in Bangladesh by enabling the city’s ~two million electric rickshaws to draw power from the ~six million solar home systems in Bangladesh. And transition the city’s rickshaws from lead-acid batteries to longer-lasting, more efficient, safer and less-polluting lithium-ion (LI) batteries.
With teams in Bangladesh, India, China, and the UK, Deloitte developed a commercial strategy and value proposition for a LI-battery-rental scheme for rickshaw drivers linked to SOLshare’s wider ecosystem of solar-powered microgrids. This unique system creates 600,000KwH of excess energy per day which is enough to support Bangladesh’s rickshaw infrastructure. Coupled with the LI battery rental scheme, enabling SOLshare to deliver superior energy sources that are greener and more affordable through an innovative fractional ownership scheme.
Working with SOLShare we delivered a new value proposition for this convergence to overcome critical demand and supply-chain constraints and secure a battery supplier. Our commercial strategy helped them successfully launch a direct-to-consumer ecommerce offering for rickshaw batteries, as a standalone product line.
SOLshare has piloted its battery rental service in six garages and 400 rickshaws within Dhaka, enabling drivers to increase their earnings by up to 40% and cutting energy costs of the garage owners by 50%.
With over two million rickshaws in Dhaka there’s significant opportunity to scale up, delivering further environmental and energy efficiency benefits, and the company is working with the Bangladeshi government to do that.
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