At the start of the year, we wrote a short article (Are we really entering a new era in 2021?). One of the questions asked was, “Why don’t we see more attempts at designing ‘Motorcycle Trucks’ for Asian cities?”. A better term would have been ‘Cargo Bikes’. Nevertheless, we received quite a lot of positive feedback on this question, and we’ve seen photos of such machines making an appearance in Jakarta.

Coming out of the UK, we’ve recently noticed a newspaper article and a video on this subject. We thought them both worth sharing:

• Newspaper article: Cargo bikes deliver faster and cleaner than vans, study finds from The Guardian
• Video: Do you really need a car? Why E-bikes could be the future of personal transport from Global Cycling Network

There are a whole bunch of questions about how such machines could be effectively deployed within Asian cities.

First one that comes to mind, given that the vast majority of deliveries are on rider-owned motorcycles, what would it take to get riders to switch from conventional motorcycles to Electric Cargo Bikes?