In February 2025, the police suddenly started impounding e-tricycles in Hauna and Chipinge, despite having previously allowed the women to operate freely. They demanded registration and driving licences, which cripples women’s businesses.
in my state in the u.s. those ‘e-tricycles’ would require licenses and insurance for the vehicle and the operator. being able to haul 450kg (nearly 1000 lbs) of cargo, the motors would be far too powerful to fall under ‘e-bike’ regulations.
I’d have some real questions about rollover risk on these. Three-wheel ATVs have a bad history and were banned in the US back in the 1980s — they’re less stable than quads and heavy enough to incur severe crush injuries in a rollover — and I’d expect that the batteries make these even heavier.
And these aren’t just personal vehicles, like the ATVs, but being used to run a commercial service. The government probably has a heightened interest in safety of passengers of commercial service.
Lives are cheaper in some places in the world, and maybe that’s not a luxury that that Zimbabwe can afford, if it needs inexpensive transport. But if there is one kind of vehicle that I’d be dubious about, it’d be something like these.
Yeah, I don’t know if requiring license and registration is really a “crackdown”. Probably better to create a class of vehicles that doesn’t require the $500 fee, like light motorcycles or something similar, if it doesn’t exist yet.
