The Bhutanese Leading the way.
At the 20th Meet-the-Press session held on 1st October 2025, the government assured that subsidies for undelivered electric vehicles (EVs) under the Sustainable Low Emission Urban Transport Systems project will be recovered and redirected to eligible taxi drivers to meet the project’s target of 300 EV taxis.
Providing an update, Lyonpo Chandra Bdr Gurung, the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport (MoIT) informed that 34 EVs remain undelivered, comprising 32 from Kuenphen Motors and 2 from Bhutan Hyundai. Of these, Kuenphen Motors secured four purchase orders, and is therefore, obligated to refund subsidies for the remaining 28 vehicles, while Bhutan Hyundai managed to secure orders for its two pending vehicles.
However, Kuenphen Motors failed to refund the subsidies for the 28 EVs within the 8th August 2025 deadline. The case has since been escalated by the Office of the Prime Minister (PMO) to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) for prosecution on 29th August.
The government has already taken necessary steps to ensure accountability. Once the subsidy is recovered from the supplier, PMO will transfer the funds to the Department of Surface Transport.
The department will then establish a comprehensive mechanism to redistribute the recovered subsidies to eligible taxi drivers who had initially applied, ensuring the project’s aim of transitioning 300 taxis to electric mobility is achieved.
The Sustainable Low Emission Urban Transport Systems project was initiated in 2019 with the primary goal of promoting the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and developing clean energy infrastructure in Bhutan.
The project has been closely monitored by the government amid concerns over supplier defaults and delayed delivery of EVs.
