[saamblr]

Happened to visit a three wheeler manufacturing facility during my last trip to china. Wondering whether these kinds of vehicles are available in India ?. If not , do you think it is a commercially viable product for the Indian market ?. These guys make both electric and petrol variants.

[Paulstar]

Commercially viable = all about the $$

Can it do more for less money than what is already available?

[julupani]

The only basic design difference between a 3wheeled goods carrier in India, like those from Mahindra, Bajaj or Piaggio is the lack of an enclosed canopy in the Chinese version.

In a country like India, with 4-months of seriously hot summers, and 2-3months of heavy rains, I think a canopy is well worth it.

Also, I think such vehicles I think always existed. I am not exactly sure who made them, but I think modifiying motorcycles to goods carriers have been seen in north India. In India, we even have power tillers powering goods/passenger vehicle in rural areas.

Other than that, the above design cant' be used with passenger carrier. It has very basic rear suspension and with no engine at the back, it will be very very bouncy at the back.

The overall design is very very basic, and lacks finesse. It seems more like something that is the result of a backyard project, or assembling parts from different vehicles together to make something that just works, without any thought given to how well it works.

[saamblr]

i saw quite a few passenger three wheelers as well as two wheelers on road - mostly electric ones. I understand from our vendors that govt is pushing the development of electric vehicles very eagerly. Lot of electric buses are also on road. Considering that we are highly dependent on oil imports , these vehicles surely need to be encouraged - especially in the rural areas.

[mdsaab]

This is quite a cool concept. And one can think of many uses for this sort of vehicle.
Like delivering vegetables, milk etc. I had seen some locally modified bikes in Kolkata which were similar to the ones in your photos. But these were really crude and were truly backyard mechanic jobs. I think if launched in India, backed by the govt. This can be quite a segment.

[rajeev k]

Many years ago Kerala Scooters Ltd, a Pappanamcode (near Trivandrum) based state PSU has launched a scooter based goods vehicles similar to the one shown here. But flopped.

[saamblr]

Originally Posted by rajeev k

Many years ago Kerala Scooters Ltd, a Pappanamcode (near Trivandrum) based state PSU has launched a scooter based goods vehicles similar to the one shown here. But flopped.

Rajeev - this company is still alive ?.