Taiwan to outlaw fuel-powered bikes and cars
With 14 million two-wheelers for its populace of 23 million, Taiwan praises itself to have the highest motorcycle density in the world. Accordingly, its latest law for climate action aims to get their exhaust under control.
The government in Taipei has ordered all two-wheelers to turn their wheels with zero emissions by 2035. The measure is part of a bill that also wants to ban all sales of combustion engine vehicles by 2040.
Different from other countries that plan to introduce a ban, Taiwan that officially belongs to China, does not only intend to block more fossil-fuelled vehicles from taking to its roads but has effectively written the proposal into law already.
The decision is accompanied by other programmes such as the installation of 3,310 LEV charging stations over the coming five years. There are 1,800 charging stations for electric motorcycles in Taiwan currently and the new facilities will bring the total to around 5,000.
Other incentives include subsidies, special license plates, dedicated parking lots and parking discounts. So the willingness among motorcyclists to switch to electric motorbikes is at 60 percent, Xinhua quotes a recent survey.
Such LEV readiness may have been fuelled by local manufacturers such as Gogoro as well. The company had introduced its rental electric scooter scheme first in Taiwan before reportedly exporting its vehicles to both Berlin and Paris in summer 2017 and lastly to Japan.
And while prestige projects such as the ultra limited edition of the Miss R electric racer due to be made by Taiwanese Xing Mobility this year may not serve for EV mass adoption, it may manage to inspire change. Taipei`s parking authority has at least started to install EV charging facilities that serves four-wheelers (we reported).
The island however is driven best by two wheels indeed. Not only has it got a large (electric) bicycle industry but also added scooter lanes to most highways that thus double as cycle lanes.
To date though, among the more than one million motorcycles sold in Taiwan last year, just 40,000 were electric with the total standing at about 100,000.
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