The New Rickshaw

We know that rickshaws are gaining popularity outside of India. In New York, London, and other major cities, rickshaw operators are fighting to have rickshaws legalized to travel roads and be flagged down by commuters. There are a lot of benefits of using rickshaws, for one, they are more fuel efficient than most cars due to their small engines. There are even rickshaws which are pedal-powered.

The rickshaws of tomorrow will be more advanced than they are today. According to The Auto Channel, a rickshaw powered by a direct injection gasoline engine will be launched in the near future.

Bajaj Auto recently held a press conference to shed some light on the advanced rickshaw. According to the company, here are some of the benefits of the new rickshaw:

• Emissions: The direct injection of fuel as a fine mist controlled precisely with an Electronic Control unit (ECU) avoids escape of unburnt fuel into the exhaust and drastically reduces emissions. The emissions per km on the RE GDi Autorickshaw is 25% lower Autorickshaw for HC+NOX (Hydrocarbons and nitrous oxides) and 50% lower for CO (Carbon Monoxide) than the RE Autorickshaw with virtually no visible smoke. Even more important the emissions are also comparable or lower than the alternate "clean" fuel engines using LPG/CNG.
• Economy: The RE GDi delivers a substantial 33% better fuel-efficiency than the conventional RE Autorickshaw. This is a boon to operators in the days of rising fuel prices. The new engine also has an electric oil pump, which is again precisely controlled by the ECU, to deliver savings on oil consumption as well. The pilot group of customers to whom vehicles have been sold are reporting additional income of Rs.80-100/- per day.

These advantages shows that sometimes, rickshaws are better choice than radiator-equipped Kia Spectra.