October 2011 Update 

Reflections on China – Part 2 – Electric Motor Scooters 

Recently my wife and I took our first trip to China to see our son and daughter-in-law. Matt is working on a Masters of Linguistics/Chinese with the idea of eventually teaching Chinese. Esther teaches at an international school. They live and work and study in Xiamen (Fujian Province in the southeast).

Our hotel in Xi’an was near an electric motor scooter “dealership”. Workers were assembling these scooters at all times of day and night, with shipping boxes and parts strewn all over the large sidewalk out front. Quite a scene! Not pretty, but my hunch is that they do a blistering business. I remember 10 years ago, when Matt studied Chinese abroad for a semester while in college, he shared photos of the myriad of bicycles that the Chinese people rode. Now, in many cities, those have been replaced with motorized bikes or electric motor scooters. These quiet scooters zoomed everywhere, ridden by men, women, boys, and girls. I asked how much they cost – and the answer was that you could get one for about ? 1,000 (renminbi yuan) – or somewhere in the range of $150 USD. This is just one example of the burgeoning market for products within China itself. The average Chinese consumers have more and more money to spend, and they are spending it on everything from toothpaste to clothes to electronics . . . and electric motor scooters.

So far, there is not a market for helmets though. We saw no one with a helmet on! Accessories will be coming soon, I am sure.

p.s. I just looked it up on the Web . . . and reported by Wikipedia, “China has become the largest manufacturer of scooters, producing over 50% of the world’s supply according to the MIC (Motorcycle Industry Council).”

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