Automaker Plans to Produce Electric Motorbikes, TM Says

Farshid Babakhani, the project manager of air pollution control in Tehran Municipality, says the carmaker SAIPA is to import a number of electric motorcycles on the municipality’s order, and is planning to launch an assembly line of the bikes.

The shipment is scheduled to arrive within two months, local automotive magazine Persian Khodro reported.

Iran’s electrical motorbike industry has floundered since introduction in 2014 by government-backed schemes, with several small importers attempting to drum up support for the new sector. All so far have fallen off the radar.

Babakhani said SAIPA’s first cargo consists of 200 assembled electric motorbikes, which are aimed for use in Tehran’s Bazaar, which recently enacted a rule that bans gasoline motorbikes in the area.

The automaker is holding talks with a Chinese motorcycle manufacturer to start mass production of such vehicles, he said, without revealing the name of the firm.

 Curbing Air Pollution

As part of the push by President Hassan Rouhani’s government toward environmentally-friendly transport, motorcycles and other smaller vehicles have been on the preferential support list due to the worsening air pollution in Tehran and other bigger cities from the high and rising number of gas guzzlers produced largely by domestic carmakers.

The domestic motorcycle industry has reached an annual output of 500,000 units with reasonable prices.

Motorcycles in Iran can cost from 30 million rials (€750) for a low-cost 2-stroke Honda-based design called ‘cg125’ and ‘cdi 125’ to anywhere up to 1.35 billion rials ($34,000) for a Honda CBR 1000RR bike.  

 Measures

The TM official referred to the urgent need to curb pollution in the overcrowded capital, saying the municipality will assist firms that seek to import electric motorcycles and are capable of providing good after-sales services.

“The municipality will provide financial assistance of 25 million rials ($670) for each electric bike,” Babakhani added.

There have been some measures like this earlier to give people and investors incentives to turn to eco-friendly vehicles.

During the past few years, authorities have proposed leasing plans for electric bikes. The Parliament (Majlis) once discussed issues like  waiving the mandatory driving license for such vehicles.