What is an electric tricycle and why is it important?
What is an electric tricycle?
Electric tricycles, also known as electric trikes, are three-wheeled vehicles that are powered by a combination of a battery and a motor. The battery serves as the energy source, while the motor acts as the power source for carrying goods, people, or fulfilling specific purposes.
Currently, the most common types of batteries used in electric tricycle include ternary lithium battery, lithium iron phosphate battery, and lead-acid battery. These batteries are designed to provide efficient and long-lasting power for the electric trikes.
Advantages of electric tricycle
One of the key advantages of electric tricycle is their flexibility.
They can easily navigate through narrow roads and tight spaces, making them an ideal choice for short-distance transportation in households, rural and urban areas, factories, mining sites, sanitation, community cleaning, and more. They are also easier to park and require less space compared to traditional vehicles.
The importance of electric tricycle
The importance of electric tricycle lies in their ability to offer an environmentally-friendly transportation option that can be used in a wide range of settings and for various purposes. They produce lower emissions compared to traditional vehicles, and they are much quieter, making them ideal for use in residential areas.
Furthermore, electric tricycles are cost-effective to operate and maintain. They have fewer moving parts than traditional vehicles, which means they require less maintenance. They are also cheaper to operate since they do not rely on expensive fuel sources.
In summary, electric tricycle offers an innovative and sustainable transportation solution that can be used for a range of purposes.
From short-distance transportation in rural areas to community cleaning in urban areas, electric tricycles are a versatile and reliable mode of transportation. They are cost-effective, environmentally-friendly, and flexible, making them an important addition to the transportation industry.
Status quo of electric tricycle industry
Asia is the main production and consumption region of electric tricycle in the world.
In addition to China, many countries in South Asia and Southeast Asia have their own unique three-wheel motorcycle culture.
In Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia and India, etc., the application range and demand scale of three-wheeled motorcycles are relatively large.
In the past two years, affected by the production and sales of electric tricycles in China, the production and sales of electric tricycle in the world have rebounded.
Data show that in 2022, the global production of electric tricycles will be about 24.453 million units, and the sales volume will be 22.872 million units.
In the future, as the global demand for energy-saving and green vehicles continues to grow, the global consumption of electric tricycle will continue to grow.
Electric tricycle industry chain
From the perspective of the industrial chain, electric tricycles are generally composed of electrical systems, control systems, decorative parts, body parts, and on-board accessories. The electrical system is mainly composed of motors, controllers, batteries, converters, flashers, lamps, speakers, main wiring harnesses, etc.
The control system is composed of speed control handle, brake handle, brake cable, brake, switch and so on.
The trim part mainly includes body panels and rear trunks. The body parts mainly include special parts such as frame, front fork, steering handle, rear fork, rear hanger, saddle, rear shock absorber and special standard parts for electric tricycles (such as the center shaft, crank pedal, flywheel, chain, chain adjuster, etc.).
The on-board accessories are composed of battery chargers, bumpers, rearview mirrors, etc. The core components of an electric tricycle are the frame, battery, motor, controller, and charger.
Product structure of electric tricycle
Electric tricycles mainly cover three categories: freight tricycles, passenger caravans, and leisure tricycles.
The three-wheeled electric cargo has a power of more than 800W, most of which is 1000W-1500W, and those with a power of more than 2000W are called large hydropower or large electric goods.
In recent years, with the acceleration of the electrification process of three-wheeled motorcycles, the demand for electric heavy-duty trucks has continued to expand.
Passenger three-wheeled caravans have entered thousands of households in self-use mode, once again standing on a new outlet and detonating the market. In small towns and villages where public transportation facilities are not perfect, caravans are operated to carry passengers.
On the one hand, it solves the source of livelihood of some groups, and on the other hand, it provides convenience for ordinary people’s short-distance travel.
Leisure three-wheeled, spacious driving space, can meet the diversified needs of daily travel, transportation, baby pick-up and so on. The people who buy recreational tricycles are basically the elderly and mothers.
Future trends of electric tricycle
Product quality upgrade
2023 is the year of high-quality development of the tricycle industry. Today, when the market is relatively mature, the competition in the tricycle industry returns to the product itself, and the product is the most essential and core weapon for an enterprise to win in the competition.
More companies will benchmark against the new product quality standards, and combine their own conditions to set the goal of product quality improvement and upgrading.
It is foreseeable that returning to the origin of products, exerting originality, and creating products that users love will become the mainstream of the entire industry.
Battery revolution
In recent years, lithium batteries for electric tricycles have become the main force. Due to the soaring price of lithium battery raw materials, the global lithium resource reserves are relatively small and unevenly distributed, and more than half of the exploitable lithium resource reserves are concentrated in South America.
As a major power battery manufacturing country, China only accounts for 14%, and the pricing power is in the hands of others. On the contrary, the reserves of sodium resources are abundant, more than a thousand times that of lithium elements, and the resources are evenly distributed, and can be obtained in the crust and ocean.
Under the dual effects of raw material prices and resource reserves, sodium-ion batteries will naturally become another development direction for future batteries.
Summary
To sum up, electric tricycles are an important part of society’s daily needs, providing an efficient and environmentally friendly transportation solution.
Driven by the continuous improvement of the industrial chain and the growing demand of the public, the industry is expected to continue to grow.
Focusing on improving product quality and exploring new battery solutions will help create more sustainable and innovative electric three-wheelers in the future.
