Kevin Davie
27 November 2007 08:32
Source: Mail and Guardian Online
With oil nudging $100 a barrel this week, I did a set of test rides of vehicles that are so cheap to run you can travel 100km for as little as 40c.These vehicles — electric scooters or bikes — potentially solve two problems that characterise motorised travel in Johannesburg: rising energy costs and increasing gridlock.The three bikes I rode are made in China, which has undergone a revolution in personal transport since 1998, when most major cities in China began banning the use of petrol-powered motorbikes to clean up pollution.The result has been the emergence of the ubiquitous electric scooter and bike. More than nine million electric bikes and scooters were sold in China last year, according to Business Week, citing Goldman Sachs, at a cost of $1,5-billion.
