The Return of the Microcar in China

I was really surprised by the number of electric vehicles on the roads in China. In the regional areas, little three wheeled electric 'town cars' were everywhere. There were plenty of different makes and models and they came in both petrol and electric versions. Almost every six months some company in the west announces a new-fangled, space-aged microcar prototype at some car show, which quickly disappears and is never heard of again. China meanwhile just gets on and builds the damn things. They sell because they are actually true to the raison de entre for microcars - they are cheap and simple. With a plastic / fibreglass body and officially classed a 'three wheel motorcycle', these cars are incredibly cheap (~ $6000USD).

Bikes and Trikes in China

Shelly and I spent three weeks in October travelling around in China. I must admit China was nothing like what I expected. I was expecting scooter and motorcycle chaos like in Bali and Vietnam. Instead, there was only the silent whirring of electric scooters. In Beijing and Shanghai there were almost no petrol diven scooters or motorbikes at all. I assume this was part of China's environmental clean up push.

Brand spanking new scooters in a showroom outside Shanghai.

Roadside scooter park. Almost all the modern scooters - and there were dozens and dozens of makes - were electric.

This electric scooter is kind of styled like a Harley Topper. I only saw three of these on the whole trip.

Electric scoots charging up.

Some of the electric scooters were absolutely basic.

This was a very popular little electric scooter in Beijing. Behind it are typical Beijing taxi trikes.

People had all manner of aftermarket sunshades, windscreens and accessories fitted to their machines.

This lady was riding along with an umbrella fixed to the bike. The fact that it wasn't blown away highlights the fact that most bikes and scooters in China are driven at relatively slow speeds. These machines are not suited to Australian road conditions where a constant minimum speed of 60 kilometres per hour are required.

Wuyang Hondas dominated the market in the south. These are outside Kunming. All domestic motorcycles appeared to be limited to 125cc.

But they don't make the most comfortable bed!

A mixture of old and new in Yangshuo. A Wuyang Honda and a pedal trike. Most bikes had aftermarket legshields added.

A little commercial trike in Shanghai with aftermarket roof.

Shanghai taxi trikes.


A taxi trike motorcycle. The stainless steel bodywork was typically Beijing.

Tianjin manufacture a whole range of trike commercial motorcycles. Guilin in the south-west seemed to have a large number of vendors.

A very battered old commercial trike outside Beijing. Some machines were almost moving wrecks. In the north almost every commercial trike was painted blue. In the south, the market seemed dominated by the red Tianjin commercial.

More commercial trikes doing their thing.

One of the wildest rides of our lives - taxi trike in Xian.