In the United States, luxury-car buyers are snapping up Teslas and other electric cars that cost more than US$60,000 (S$84,200), and even relatively cheap models cost more than US$25,000. In India, those are all out of reach of the vast majority of families, whose median income is just US$2,400. But an electric vehicle movement is taking place nonetheless - not on four wheels, but on two and three.

Electric mopeds and three-wheeled rickshaw taxis that sell for as little as US$1,000 are zipping along India's congested urban thoroughfares, cheered on by environmentalists and the government as a way to clear some of the oppressive smog. India's success with the low-cost vehicles is also providing a template for how developing countries could ditch combustion engines and combat climate change without pricey electric cars.