World’s first Cardano-based electric vehicle project to debut in Sri Lanka

As the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry continues to expand despite crashing markets, manufacturers of electric vehicles (EVs) are increasingly interested, and one of them has announced the debut of its EV project built on the Cardano (ADA) network, set to launch in Sri Lanka.

Indeed, the Sri Lanka deployment of eTukTuk, the first-ever automotive project created on Cardano, was announced on the second day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) taking place in Davos, Switzerland, according to the report by CityAM published on January 18.

eTukTuk project

Specifically, the project aims to address the infrastructure and cost issues that have previously prevented the launch of EVs at scale by building an innovative, sustainable, and “dynamic, multi-revenue model” that would incentivize the expansion of eTukTuk’s network of charging stations and EVs through Cardano.

According to the report, the eTukTuk team will be working with influential industry partners and the local government in Sri Lanka, where there are currently 1.2 million traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) TukTuks on the roads.

In line with its objectives, eTukTuk aims to cut the number of these traditional ICE vehicles on Sri Lankan roads, reduce air pollution, and provide infrastructure and an “affordable transportation network that severs the ties that bind us to fossil fuels.”

Rosy Senanayake, the mayor of Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, where 70% of the inefficient ICE TukTuks are based, said that:

“eTukTuk’s solution has the ability to drive economic change throughout Colombo and, indeed, Sri Lanka. (…) The current TukTuk drivers are in need of the affordable and sustainable solution that eTukTuk provides – one that places their take-home pay, safety, and the environment at the forefront of their plans.”

Cardano network development

Elsewhere, Cardano’s developers are working hard on advancing the ecosystem, including the deployment of the first-ever smart contract written in Eopsin, an innovative Pythonic programming language, allowing developers to write 100% valid Python programs, leveraging the existing tool stack for Python.

On top of that, the ADA team has announced another Cardano upgrade planned for February, which will introduce new built-in functions to the Plutus smart contracts, with an aim “to make it easier for developers to build cross-chain apps.”

ADA price analysis

Meanwhile, Cardano’s native ADA token is riding on the bullish momentum that has opened the new year on the crypto market, currently changing hands at the price of $0.3369, up 1.50% on the day, and 1.40% across the week, adding up to the cumulative monthly gains of 32.77%.

As things stand, Cardano’s market capitalization currently stands at $11.65 billion, making it the eighth-largest cryptocurrency by this indicator, according to the latest data retrieved by Finbold from the crypto tracking platform CoinMarketCap on January 20.