Based on a multilateral agreement signed early this week, Iran Post Company will switch from motorcycles using fossil fuel to electric bikes to renovate its fleet and curb its carbon footprint.
A deal has been signed in this regard by IPC, Tehran Municipality's Transportation and Traffic Organization, a subsidiary of Vice Presidential Office for Science and Technology, and local motorcycle manufacturer Sahand Company, YJC reported.
Based on the agreement, 3,000 electric motorcycles are to be delivered to IPC in two phases. Initially, 50 bikes will be delivered by early May on a trial basis. If the expected quality is verified, a date will be set up for the delivery of other bikes.
Tehran Municipality is committed to offer cheap loans worth 150 million rials ($967) with a 4% interest rate to each applicant for replacing a carbureted-engine postal delivery bike.
IPC motorists can return the loan in 36 monthly installments. Further detail is not available, but it is likely that the parties concerned may ask bikers to pay the remaining 150 million rials ($967) as down payment.
The vice presidential office has agreed to offer financial and technical support to Sahand Company in manufacturing the bikes.
This is not the first time IPC is making efforts to make its services more eco-friendly. The company unveiled drone delivery services in December 2019 as a test run.
Powered by Iran Information and Communication Technologies Ministry, the prototype quadcopter will deliver parcels on doorsteps.
In July 2019, IPC signed an agreement with Qarz Al-Hassaneh Mehr Iran Bank and a local motorcycle manufacturer, Nirou Moharrake Industrial Company, to renovate its motorcycle fleet for postal delivery.
Loans for Buying E-Bikes
The push to promote electric motorcycles started months ago, when TM announced that with the help of the state-backed Omid Entrepreneurship Fund, it would extend cheap loans to e-bike buyers, covering 80% of the vehicle's price.
Yousef Hojjati, an official at the municipality's TTO, said the fund will extend loans collectively worth 12.5 billion rials ($80,600) to the owners of carbureted motorcycles for replacing their vehicles with a new, efficient and eco-friendly one.
The loans are expected to be offered with an interest rate of 4%.
Hojjati told reporters that senior officials have agreed on the general terms of the incentive.
"TM will start offering loans as soon as the two sides reach an accord on the details," he said.
The price of electric motorcycles, which was about 100 million rials ($666) last March, has almost tripled over the past few months. An ordinary e-bike was sold on Monday for 300-350 million rials ($1,935-2,258).
To receive the loan, buyers need to fill an application form on the website of Tehran Air Quality Control Company (Air.tehran.ir) affiliated to the municipality. Applicants are required to enter their personal ID information, plus the motorcycle’s details.
According to TM rules, the incentive will be offered only once to each Tehran resident who buys an electric motorcycle running on a 3-kWh or more powerful batteries.
After the documents are sent by the applicant and verified, the buyer will receive the loan within a month.
The TM move is expected to promote the use of zero-emission electric motorcycles in the metropolis and help curb air pollution in the overcrowded capital.
Unending Nuisance
Replacing carbureted two-wheelers with electric motorcycles has been a concern among urban managers.
Mohammad Hossein Motevallizadeh, the head of Iran's Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir), earlier told reporters that each motorist drives over 200 kilometers per day in the capital city, Tehran, annually burning 2,100 liters of gasoline that costs the owner over 60 million rials ($387).
Since electricity is heavily subsidized in Iran, "replacing gas guzzlers with e-bikes reduces the annual cost to around 6 million rials [$38]. This eases the motorists' financial stress, as a large number of them use motorcycles to earn their living", he said.
As per the most recent negotiations between Iran's Motorcycle Association and Tavanir, three million fossil fuel burning motorcycles can be replaced with electric ones within two years.
"The plan will eliminate 15 million tons of pollutants from the air. On average, each carbureted motorbike produces five to six times more pollution than a vehicle with Euro 2 standards. This is while each motorcycle is used ten times more than an average car," he said.
Experts believe that every 1 million motorcycles generate 286 tons of carbon monoxide, 100 tons of sulfur dioxide and 7 tons of nitrogen dioxide per day, making the bad air pollution conditions much worse.
“Talks are underway to finalize details of the agreement. In case the plan is successful, it will also be extended to other metropolises,” he said.
A total of 11.5 million motorcycles are registered in the country, over three million of which ply the capital city’s roads.
The polluting motorbikes are responsible for 10% of PM2.5, particulate matters smaller than 2.5 micrometers. These tiny killers are harmful due to their ability to penetrate deep into the lungs and blood streams unfiltered, causing heart attacks, respiratory disease and premature death.
This has been retrieved from a study recently conducted by Tehran Air Quality Control Company on the nature and sources of pollutants.
The study divides sources of pollution into stationary and mobile modes. Stationary sources, which include industrial units, generate 24% of the total PM2.5 in Tehran’s air.
Mobile sources are responsible for the remaining 76%, including private cars, taxis, motorcycles, minibuses, buses, heavy duty vehicles and airplanes.
