28/31: Scooters in China
At the beginning of the 31 challenge I told you about my life in Shanghai. One of the topics was how I moved around the city, and I told you that I use an electric scooter, the name varies from source to source so I’ll just stick with scooter for the rest of the story. This is not only me, around 31% of the Chinese population uses a scooter as their way of transportation, which makes it one of the most popular ways to move around the city.
Most of the streets and avenues have their dedicated line for scooters, in one way streets usually the scooters would drive to the opposite direction of the cars, so it’s easy for both drivers to see each other. On bigger avenues scooters would have their separated line where cars can’t drive and has its own lights (sometimes not synched with the cars).
Getting a scooter was pretty straightforward a year ago. You could easily buy a second hand scooter or go to get a brand new at any store, there where not real restrictions on size or shape of them, while the models where very similar between them. But starting in March of this year, the Shanghai government decided to stop this and now all scooters must go through a registration in order to get their license plate, scooters would need to be government approved, with some size and speed restrictions. While the law was heavily endorsed the first weeks with policeman stopping not registered scooters in the streets, the truth is by now the rule isn’t followed as strictly as the beginning. The rule had some effects though, scooters that don’t qualify to be government approved lost their value by more than 50%, and most of them are being sold to cities that don’t have strict rules against scooters.
Scooters started growing in 2004 and it hasn’t stopped since. That year 40,000 scooters were sold in all China, by now more than 20 million scooters are sold every year. Electric scooters have become the most popular two wheeled way of transport, having 50% of that market.
Prices vary depending on the type of scooter you are looking for, but at this moment the average price goes around ¥2,000 to ¥3,000 (290–440 USD), with battery included which at this moment can have a value of ¥700-¥800 (100–120 USD). A normal battery would last you for around 20–30km which is more than enough for the daily transportation of a person. For larger distances you usually can take metro or taxi, which would be faster and more convenient the farther you go. Also prices per kilometer are way cheaper compared to gasoline or public transportation which in the first case is 30 times more expensive in a kilometer basis than the electric scooter.
A whole industry has been born around the scooters in Shanghai, from winter clothing to prevent cold winds, to huge rain coats to cover both the driver, passenger and scooter, to specialized locks and GPS tracking. Some companies based all their incomes in providing extra things for scooter drivers. Also scooters repairmen can be seen almost in every neighborhood in Shanghai.
But everything comes with a cost, batteries are not usually recycled, and when it’s done it doesn’t follow any kind of regulation because the Chinese government lacks of one. Also scooter thefts are common in big cities, where leaving your scooter for a night in a random street can cost you the entire vehicle or its battery.
While getting a scooter license plate has discouraged people to get their own scooter, it is and still be one of the easiest and cheapest ways to get around the city, without all the trouble that getting a car represents in China.
At the end, the evolution of Chinese culture to electric scooters has helped the biggest cities to, at least, have a good way to control the carbon emissions by vehicles, which makes China one of the pioneers in this issue.
This story is part of my 31/31 challenge. Following a friend’s idea I will publish at least one story every day for the next month.
If you see any error please let me know, the idea is to stop over-reviewing my stories before publishing them.
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