Replacing carbureted two-wheelers with electric motorcycles is one of the initiatives pursued by Iranian urban managers, as providing eco-friendly and efficient transportation has become a real challenge in view of a growing population and soaring demand.
In line with this agenda, MAPNA Group unveiled a new electric motorcycle, ISNA reported.
Abbas Aliabadi, the company’s CEO, explained that the bike is equipped with an in-wheel drive engine and an electric vehicle drive system that directly powers the wheels.
“The motorcycle has an air-cooling generator system and a 72-volt battery, which increases the motorcycle’s top speed to 70 km/h,” he said, adding that the company is also working on boosting the bike’s batteries.
“MAPNA is starting a promising collaboration with local auto producers to expand the production of electric bikes,” he said.
The company has also stepped in to set up infrastructures for producing electric four- and two-wheelers in the country, including charger stations.
Aliabadi said the company set up Iran’s first EV charging station at Tehran’s Milad Tower in May 2019.
Built over 700 square meters, the station includes a 43-kilovolt alternating current charger, plus a fast charger working under the Chademo Protocol, a trade name of a quick charging method for electric vehicles, which suits Japanese and South Korean EVs such as Kia, Nissan and Mitsubishi.
The station also includes a 4.7-kv slow charger and a 5.5-kv charger that can be used by electric motorcycles.
Mashhad in Khorasan Razavi Province was the second city to house an electric charging station following Tehran.
The company is to set up electric vehicle charging stations in all Iranian provinces by the end of current fiscal year (March 2021).
Negotiations Over Production
Bahman Zia-Moqaddam, secretary of Iran's Motorcycle Association, says most e-bikes made in Iran are produced from imported CKD units.
According to the official, the biggest challenge hampering the local production of e-bikes is the battery’s short life and the vehicle’s higher price compared to gasoline motorcycles.
Zia-Moqaddam called on the government to extend cooperation and support, saying, “If the state covers a part of the expenses, the general public’s willingness to use clean vehicles will increase.”
In line with encouraging policymakers to support the production of e-bikes, Amir Bayat, an official with Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization, earlier met the parliamentary faction for knowledge-based economy and officials from the National Innovation Fund.
Bayat emphasized the necessity of promoting the culture of using environment-friendly vehicles and called on related entities to help streamline the production of electronic vehicles.
Challenges Ahead
Earlier speaking to the media, Mohammad Hossein Motevallizadeh, the head of Iran's Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir), said 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 63 million rials ($2,400).
Since electricity is heavily subsidized in Iran, "replacing gas guzzlers with e-bikes reduces the annual cost to around 6 million rials [$23]. This eases the motorists' financial burden, as a large number of them use motorcycles to earn a living", he said.
As per earlier 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 air pollutants. 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 10 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 bad air pollution conditions much worse.
“Talks are underway to finalize the 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.
Loans for Buying E-Bikes
The push to promote electric motorcycles started almost a year ago, when Tehran Municipality 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 TM's Transportation and Traffic Organization, said the fund will extend loans collectively worth 12.5 billion rials ($48,000) to the owners of carbureted motorcycles who are willing to replace their vehicles with a new, efficient and ecofriendly one.
However, with the national currency losing a huge share of its value against the greenback during the past year and the tripling of prices, the loan plan was almost halted.
The price of electric motorcycles, which was about 100 million rials ($740) last March, has hiked over the past year. An ordinary e-bike was sold on Monday for 170 million-1.2 billion rials ($653-4,920).
