A Qiq fix: e-vehicles to ease Vietnam's traffic woes

By Dang Khoa   September 7, 2018 | 07:34 pm PT
A Qiq fix: e-vehicles to ease Vietnam's traffic woes
Traffic jam in Hanoi. Photo by VnExpress/Manh Cuong
A Singaporean start-up will deliver e-scooters and other personal mobility devices to help Vietnamese cities resolve their traffic problems.

A Techinasia report says Qiq Global plans to deploy over 5,000 rentable personal mobility devices (PMDs) to Vietnam over the next two years, starting with Hanoi, Da Nang and Hai Phong.

The deployment will happen under a business agreement that the Singaporean start-up has signed with its Vietnamese partner, TPR Invest, an investment and property development firm.

While the first PMDs will comprise e-scooters and pedal-assist electric bikes, Qiq plans to introduce electric rickshaws and jeeps in the future.

The startup’s co-founders worked for years to fix charging glitches and have come up with a solution that will fully charge the PMDs in just seven minutes.

The company is hoping that the PMDs and the docking stations they come with “will form a transportation network that could seed a bigger change in Vietnam and the world,” the Techinasia report said.

Ben Lim, Qiq’s co-founder and chief compliance officer, estimated that each 20-minute or eight-kilometer Qiq ride will cost an affordable VND15,000 (about $0.60).

The introduction of PMDs in Hanoi might segue well with the capital city’s decision to ban motorbikes from the city center from 2030 as a far-reaching measure to reduce traffic congestion.

 
 
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