Jakarta Globe, Lenny
Tristia Tambun, June 20, 2013
A Clean Motion Zbee vehicle. (Image courtesy of Clean Motion) |
Fresh on
the heels of the central government’s plan to offer incentives for the
production of low-cost green vehicles, the Jakarta administration has expressed
its interest in purchasing electric rickshaws from Sweden to replace the
capital’s aging fleet, known as bajajs.
“Sweden has
explained their electric bajajs, and we agree that they are better than the
gas-powered models. Plus, the price is not too expensive,” Jakarta Deputy
Governor Basuki Tjhaja said on Wednesday.
Basuki said
that he has asked the Swedish company that produces the electric bajajs, Clean
Motion, to send the vehicles over to Jakarta so that city administrators could
test them.
“They have
to send some over so we can conduct tests. The company said it would deliver
them this month, but it seems like they will arrive late,” he said.
Previously,
Clean Motion said that it would launch its Zbee electric rickshaw to replace
traditional 3-wheeled taxis in order to offer a more environmentall -friendly
mode of transportation.
The company
also announced its plan to manufacture Zbees in Indonesia by building a factory
in East Java capable of producing up to 100,000 of the green vehicles annually.
Basuki said
that he would let the people of Jakarta decide if they want to switch from the
gas-powered bajaj to the electric Zbee.
According
to the Jakarta Transportation Agency, there are 11,669 gas-powered bajajs
officially registered with the city. Less than 3,000 of them are blue bajajs,
which are powered by compressed natural gas (CNG).
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