SCOOTER INTO THE FUTURE
Meet the small electric tricycle with big dreams
Green Scooter is an SA start-up that claims to introduce the first and safest electric motor-tricycle on the African continent. It has two models, the Zbee Cargo and the Zbee RS, aimed at consumers and businesses.
The company is targeting daily commuters who require a last-mile ride and consumers who would like to own an affordable electric vehicle for short-to-medium distance trips.
It is available through a rent or rent-toown model starting at R5,345 per month for a minimum three-month lease that goes up to 36 months.
Sowetan Motoring was given an exclusive test drive of the vehicle at its offices in the West Rand recently.
It operates like a motorbike with controls on the handlebar and has motorised wipers. Both models have a 5.14kWh battery, located beneath the driver’s seat in the centre.
It charges from a built-in two pin plug, and has a top speed of 60km/h.
On a single charge, the Zbee Cargo provides up to 120km of range and the Zbee RS, which seats three people, offers up to 100km of range.
The Cargo model has 1,200l of storage, plus a separate 50l lockable compartment for items like a backpack, laptop, and fire extinguisher.
After a brief tutorial in the parking lot, I zipped around to get a feel for it, and just like any other EV, it moves quickly due to instant torque.
It is open on both sides, but you can zip up a clear protective shield for windy or rainy conditions.
It was a fun drive, easy to manoeuvre but I felt it was more suited as a delivery vehicle rather than to get around.
Founder and CEO Fezile Dhlamini says soon after Green Scooter was founded in 2017, two macro-trends emerged that changed the game, “The rise of electric vehicles, and the boom in delivery services as a result of the pandemic.
The potential market for the Zbee Cargo delivery version suddenly got a whole lot bigger.”
Six years later, the company has attracted interest from food delivery services, courier and fleet companies, and burger chain McDonalds.
The journey wasn’t easy for Dhlamini, who realised in 2018 after continuous rejections that nobody was going to fund his business.
He had everything on paper, but without money or resources, he couldn’t build a prototype.
“I started another company; I built software, hardware, ran marketing campaigns, and made a lot of money from that, which I pumped into Green Scooter,” says Dhlamini.
Green Scooter formed technical partners in Sweden, and initially imported the scooters from Sweden, but it is now assembled in Centurion.
The Zbee scooters have three-point safety belts, reinforced fibre plastic and are crash tested vehicles, says Dhlamini. “It is the only vehicle in its class that has a three-point safety belt globally.
“People disregard quality. It’s easy to run to China and find a replica of a product but it’s the quality at the end of the day. We’re not trying to dump something into the market, which is what a lot of people are doing.”
“It’s the one thing I’ve always been passionate about – is that we need to fight for quality,” says Dhlamini. “It’s easy to chat about the need to drive down the duties on imported vehicles, but then why aren’t we having a conversation with the other top seven OEMs in localising EV manufacturing?”
Green Scooter is planning its next phase at a new premises in Gauteng where it hopes to do all body production, assembly, and battery packing.
Dhlamini didn’t want to divulge too much but adds as a South African, he wants to put SA first. “Real value is created through the supply chain and employment is created by supporting the guy that manufactures these components.”