E-rickshaw words in India: Tirri, Toto, Battery and Elecsha

© Abhishek Avtans
Over the past decade, metropolises, towns, cities, and even villages in India have witnessed a huge rise in the use of battery-operated e-rickshaws as a convenient means of public transport, but the history of e-rickshaws in India goes back to the small town of Phaltan in western Maharashtra. Phaltan is a rural town in the Satara district of western Maharashtra. It is home to an educational institute called NARI (Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute), where a project was undertaken to build India’s first e-rickshaw with funding from the Ministry of Non-conventional Energy, Government of India. The pioneer of this project was Dr. Anil Rajvanshi, a mechanical engineer by training. In the year 2000, NARI developed India’s first fully electric three-wheeler, named ELECSHA—a clever portmanteau of electric + ricksha. Initially, NARI developed three prototypes of e-rickshaws, but the project was never taken up for commercial production and remained unpopular until the arrival of Chinese-made e-rickshaws in Indian markets.

The BAT-BMS app incident of June 2026 brought e-rickshaws into the limelight. BAT-BMS is a Chinese battery management app. It can be connected via Bluetooth to compatible lithium batteries within a distance of 10–15 meters. With the help of this app, users can monitor battery health and remotely control compatible batteries. The remote-control feature of the app was abused to switch off e-rickshaw batteries for creating prank videos for social media. The hapless drivers had no idea why their vehicles had suddenly stopped working. These incidents also drew attention to how e-rickshaws are referred to in various regions of India.

In the National Capital Region and western Uttar Pradesh, e-rickshaws are popularly known as Tirri टिर्री (ṭirrī). I was wondering about this peculiar name and its etymology. In Brajbhasha and other dialects spoken in this region, ṭirrī is a variety of small marigold with flowers having reduced and sparse petals (refer: Krishak-jivan-sambandhi Brajbhasha-shabdavali, Vol 2 by Ambaprasad Suman, 1961). In the Aligarh region, ṭirrī was also used for modified vehicles made from scooters to carry passengers and loads. Because of their rickety and loosely built structure, they came to be known as ṭirrī. This word was later used for e-rickshaws because they resembled the same loosely built and frail structure, unlike regular autorickshaws.

In eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Assam, e-rickshaws are popularly known as Toto टोटो (ṭoṭo), which is a clever rhyme on the word auto. In languages spoken in this region, such as Bengali, toto টোটো (ṭoṭo) expresses continuous or frequent wandering without any aim, implying a vagrant, drifter, or loafer—someone who wanders aimlessly around the neighbourhood. So, when people saw e-rickshaws wandering about in their neighbourhoods, they chose this humorous name for the vehicle.

In 1946, Bengali writer Hem Chattopadhyay published his collection of satirical short stories titled টোটো কোম্পানীর ম্যানেজার (ṭōṭō kōmpānīr myānējār). The book’s title story is, obviously, Ṭōṭō Kōmpānīr Myānējār (“The Manager of the Loafer Company”). Here is a summary of the story in English:

The main protagonist of this story, Binit Sen (Binu), lives in Ballygunj, Calcutta, and has hilariously failed his Matriculation examinations three years in a row. He and a band of local idlers form a club named the “Toto Company.” The primary eligibility criterion for joining is that one must be an academic failure. Binit is chosen as the “manager” because he claims to have travelled extensively across ten major Indian cities. The group plans a grand excursion to the hills of Shillong (then in Assam). However, when the time comes to depart, none of the members manages to secure enough money from their families. Pooling together their loose pocket change, they send Binit off alone with a grand total of 17 rupees and 15 annas. At Sealdah station, his friends give Binit a raucous send-off, waving a red banner and raising slogans. British bystanders and hotel scouts overhear them chanting about the “Toto Company” and mistake it for the corporate empire Tata Company. Arriving at a hotel in Shillong, a rumour sweeps through the town that Binit is a high-powered executive of a company backed by a capital of ten lakh rupees. Local unemployed youths beg him to open a local branch of his “Toto Company.” Enjoying elite treatment, Binit lives luxuriously on credit, orders three expensive suits from an English clothes shop, takes scenic photographs, and lives like a king. One morning, he suddenly vanishes. He leaves his heavy trunks and suitcases behind as collateral, but when the furious hotel manager and creditors force them open, they find them packed with worthless bundles of old newspapers. When they try to track him down via the Calcutta address he had left behind (Arasik Mudir Lane), they discover that the street does not even exist. Binit safely returns to Calcutta after his sojourn as the manager of the Toto Company, completely unscathed, leaving his creditors empty-handed.

There are other names for e-rickshaws as well. For example, in Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh) and nearby areas they are known as Tamtam टमटम (after the horse carts of the same name). Hindi tam-tam टमटम is from the English tandem, i.e., a horse carriage driven by two animals harnessed one in front of the other. The resemblance to the Dutch navigation brand TomTom is probably coincidental.

In some Hindi-speaking regions, they are known as Battery (because they are powered by batteries), Mayuri, Bulbul, or Mini-Metro (after three of the most popular e-rickshaw brand names), and hawā hawāī in some regions of Bihar because they are light and loosely built.

In the southern states, the most common term for e-rickshaws is battery auto.

The story of the e-rickshaw in India goes beyond the arrival of a new mode of transport on the roads to the tale of how Indian languages respond to technological change. A vehicle hardly known 25 years ago has already acquired a remarkable variety of local names, each reflecting the humour, imagination, and linguistic habits of the people who use it. As e-rickshaws continue to spread across the country, new names will surely emerge, adding yet another chapter to India’s rich tradition of naming everyday things.