Cuba's Streets Are Bustling With Electric Scooters And Motorbikes

Unsurprisingly, electric scooters are providing Cubans with much-needed mobility.

By: Enrico Punsalang

Jul 27, 2022 at 6:28pm ET

Add RideApart as a preferred source in Google

Comment

Cuba is considered by some to be a living, breathing classic car museum, with a sizable chunk of the vehicles on the road there being from the period before the Cuban Revolution. That means 1950's Cadillacs, Chevrolets, Buicks, and Fords can be seen rolling the streets on a near daily basis. Meanwhile, other vehicles consist of then-Soviet made machines, or Poland-produced Fiats. That being said, Cuba is also fast becoming an EV-focused country.

By EV, I don't mean electric cars, but rather, electric scooters and small motorbikes. Unsurprisingly, for a country that has been struggling with acquiring a thoroughly modern form of personal mobility, the country is turning to electric two-wheelers, something that is fast becoming a universally accepted way of getting around, especially in Europe and Asia. While models from mainstream manufacturers aren't likely to hit the Cuban market anytime soon, this doesn't mean that innovation from within the country can't spark a change.

What do you think?

View

Comments

At present, Cuba looks to produce its own electric two-wheelers. The plan is to convert an old bicycle factory to mass produce affordable electric scooters. Indeed, this is no novel concept, and has seen success in certain African and Asian countries. What exactly the folks at Cuba have in store, however, is not known at the moment. Nevertheless, the development of Cuba's own electric scooters and motorbikes will certainly address the need of the local populace for personal mobility.

With cars in scarce supply and reserved only for the ultra wealthy, not to mention the supply issues when it comes to gasoline, electric two-wheelers in the Cuban setting simply make sense. At present, the electric scooter user base in Cuba is growing, and it's forecasted to continue doing so. With most of the electric scooters in the Cuban market coming from China via Panama, they undeniably serve as an attractive alternative to riding bicycles or simply walking. That said, the electric scooter boom in Cuba has provided such relief that the government has stepped in and decided to cap the cost of scooters to $1,700 to keep them accessible.