If you are reasonably normal person, most of the time you focus on what is around you, where you live and work, then where close friends and family live and finally everywhere else until you visit there. There are very good reasons to do this, but we live in a global environment so information about other countries is a good thing to know.

In an article by Lydia Depillis and Bhadra Sharma of the New York Times News Service, beside China is a country of 3 million known as Nepal. If you know anything about Nepal, you will likely know the highest mountain in the world is located in Nepal. If you have mountains, that should there should be hydro electric power and likely is relatively inexpensive because the water comes down the mountains.

Similar to most countries, Nepal had many vehicles with internal combustion engines, that has been changing. 5 years ago, there was almost no electric vehicles or EVs. This past year, 76% of all passenger vehicles sold were EVs, and the light commercial vehicles were EVs.

The swift turnover is Nepal’s wealth of hydropower and China’s EV companies had a push to sell vehicles into Nepal. The process was also helped by government subsidies to buy EVs.

The Asian Development Bank has been a key financier of Nepal’s dams, transmission lines and charging networks.

The cost of a Hyundai SUV is $38,000 and the gas-powered model is $40,000.

The Nepal Electricity Association built 62 charging systems in the capital Kathmandu. It also allowed anyone to build chargers, businesses have added 1,200. The government set electricity costs for chargers at less than market rates. At those prices, fueling a gas power tank costs 15 times as charging an electric one.

There is no perfect method as the gas-powered auto dealers worry Nepal does not have a plan for collection or recycling of batteries. The smaller Chinese car companies might be faulty; there should be more regulation to independently certify safety and quality.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, if the government wants to change habits, people vote with their pocketbook. It is the same in investing, if there is a better way, new technology which is adopted then people begin to adjust to the different method. It is a tried and true method which no matter the industry, people vote with their pocketbook to find alternatives.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.