ZBee Electric Tuk Tuk Begins Series Production - Video

As anyone who’s spent time in Southeast Asia will surely tell you: tuk tuks are a thing. In case you don’t know, a Tuk Tuk is, essentially, a 3-wheeled Vespa scooter with a utility/van body strapped to the back – and they are everywhere.

Recently, however, people throughout Asia have decided that they don’t want to die from cancers and heart attacks caused by the kind of harmful particulate emissions that the tuk tuk’s 2-stroke motors generate. Since consumers are basically big babies that don’t want to fight cancer and the manufacturers of said tuk tuks are typically business people who don’t want to be hung in the streets by a wrathful government, then, companies are scrambling to deliver a proper, low-emisison alternative to these ubiquitous 2-strokers.

Enter the ZBee electric tuk tuk. The latest in a push to commercialize the electric tuk tuk concept (following Indian manufacturing giant, Matra, and smaller-scale conversions of existing vehicles), ZBee’s concept certainly looks the part, and takes the regions horrific weather and the Vespa’s tendency to rust into consideration by offering a modern-looking, rust-proof composite body with plenty of room for stickers and advertising. Small touches like this, and the virtually identical-to-the-gasoline-version controls should help the ZBee carve a nice little niche for itself.

The batteries and powertrain of the ZBee were designed by Swedish company CleanMotion. Production is set to be overseen by Bajaj in Indonesia (who also manufacture Genuine Scooters’ Stella model) at a rate of 10,000 per year. You can see the ZBee in action in the video, below. SPOILER ALERT: it looks crazy fun!

Source:Motorpasion