On China's back roads, a cheap electric vehicle craze is booming, filling a critical gap in rural transportation.
But are these so-called old man's joys a simple solution for mobility or a dangerous dilemma, racing out of control as they flood streets with little regulation and mounting safety fears?
We're live from Beijing.
This is Roundtable.
I'm Steve.
Thanks for being with us today.
And for the show, I'm with Yushan and Yushan.
First up, picture a rural Chinese road where a mini Maserati putters along at about 70 km per hour.
No, it's not a luxury car, but a Lao Tou Le, directly translated as Old Man's Joy, a low-speed vehicle that doesn't cost much.
Originally a mobility aid for the elderly, it's now a grey market phenomenon, sparking debates.
Demand for affordable transport versus a growing safety crisis.
This is a story of the challenges of controlling a rapidly growing vehicle category.
So how can these vehicles balance rural mobility with public safety risks, and what regulatory hurdles arise in formalizing informal transport?
It's a really interesting story because these vehicles are for originally, I guess, as the name suggests, Lao Tzu Leu.
Old man's joy for the elderly.
But I think we're going to learn that now young people are getting involved with the purchases of these vehicles, which makes it sound like a very, very cute story.
And it is, until it isn't.
And we'll get to all of that.
But let's start with the definition, lao tou le.
Yeah, think of it as a pint-sized, low-speed electric vehicle.
And they're typically electric, three- or four-wheeled vehicles with a cabin.
And they first appeared back in the 1990s when farmers started modifying some of these tuk-tuks, three-wheel tuk-tuks, with canopies and extra seats for short distance trips.
And this means they were originally used on these closed roads or in enclosed environments.
And today they've evolved into some of these five-door vehicles that can squeeze in up to six people, including children.
So I'm thinking if you've been to Thailand before, Yushin, I know you have.
They have their tuk-tuks there.
Three wheels, typically with the driver in the front and then bench seating in the back.
You can squeeze maybe two or three people in there.
That is also the basic form of Lao Tzu.
Of this one, too.
In Tianjin, a neighboring city to Beijing, for the...
I don't know if it's the downtown area, but kind of the touristy area which spans about, I don't know.
8 kilometers, 10 kilometers along the river, in the middle of the city.
These Lao Tzu Le are used quite commonly, kind of like taxis.
And it's a really great way to actually get around, because you can kind of scoot in and out of traffic and avoid that and you get a better view of the city as well.
So these are kind of can we agree kind of a part of the culture of getting around in a more convenient way.
Yeah, kind of the traffic or on-the-road culture, because for many elder residents, especially in rural areas, but nowadays in major cities too, this type of vehicle, it serves as a primary mode of transport.
It's especially for these elders to pick up their grandchildren after school, for example, and this is also why these vehicles are called Lao Tou Le, the old man's joy in the first place because, primarily speaking, the elders use it more often and, but in recent years they have grown popular among younger users too, including rural mothers, who value the enclosed space For children to maybe just eat and rest a bit inside on their way to school or, after they get out of school, on their way home, or for just protection from weather like rainy days.
So traditionally, and the ones that we've described so far are cold, like these three-wheeled vehicles, sometimes functioning like a motorcycle, I think in the front but with bench seating in the back.
Think golf cart style of vehicle as well.
But now the designs have become quite a bit fancier.
Yeah, they've gone some really fancy upgrades.
And some of these four-wheeled Shuttles are essentially designed to look like mini versions of a lot of these luxury cars like Porsche Maseratis, Range Rovers, to make them more appealing to buyers, but at a fraction of the cost, an absolute fraction of the cost.
Yeah, one example is that you might see a vehicle that looks exactly like a tiny version of that four meter long mercedes-benz g wagon parked in a rural village, but it's actually an electric lautola that costs the owner only about 30 000 yuan, that's around four thousand three hundred dollars.
Yeah, on the outside sure, if you just kind of look at a glancing photo, you'd think you were looking at a Mercedes G-Wagon or a Porsche or a Range Rover.
But look more closely, and particularly if you're standing next to one, quite a bit smaller.
There was one time, that's a few years ago, when I was in the gas station and I was waiting in line to get my tank filled.
And right in front of me, there was one mini children-sized Jeep.
Right in front of me, waiting in the line too.
And of course, it took him not as long as we do to get the gas filled.
Smaller gas tank.
Smaller gas tank.
But yeah, that was the first time I saw one that's not electronic, which means that there are a lot of loads out there that use gas too.
So yeah, some are electric, some are gas, some are being used by the older generation and some now are being purchased by the younger generation.
Now, for a long time, these vehicles were not strictly classified as motor vehicles or non-motor vehicles, and that means that they often lacked a number of things that you would think a car would need, like official registration or license plates or insurance.
Even the driver themselves not required to have a driver's license, correct?
And then the sellers of these vehicles.
They frequently market them as license-free or no-plate-needed, and they do that to attract people who don't want to go through the hassle of getting a driver's license or all the normal things that you would get when getting a normal car.
Even though, actually, if you're going on the road, you do need some license and plates needed.
So basically...
Whenever you see a Laotolo on the open road, that is a kind of illegal behavior.
Yeah, but these cars, I mean, they are much smaller and the specs are totally different from a normal vehicle too.
Yeah, because well, on the road, I would totally suggest that cars you do not follow one first of all.
But
Yeah, just be careful where they're turning, because a lot of these drivers who are driving a lot probably don't really hasn't really been trained to.
You know, with all the road rules in their minds.
Those are some of the complaints and fears from people.
And also unlike standard passenger cars, Laotulas are equipped with low to mid powered electric motors and can typically reach even top speeds of around 70 kilometers per hour.
They are often built with thin metal sheets and lack the reinforced steel frames or airbags found in normal cars.
Which is one of the other issues with these vehicles, about safety standards, which we'll get to in a little while.
But the market for these kind of cars is absolutely booming right now.
Yeah, people have been buying them in massive numbers.
Here's a report from the China Electric Vehicle Association which suggests that annual sales of these four-wheeled shuttles shot up from about 11 million units in 2017 to roughly 21 million in 2023.
To give you an idea of how much that is driven by the Omen's Joy, The niche.
Nearly 14 million of those annual sales are for models specifically marketed to elder users.
But we call it Lao Tou Luo or that it's specifically for.
There are those who are specifically for elder users.
But there are young people who are really into it too, because there are.
Just this morning I was roaming on social media and I found some very interesting comments of young buyers, owners of these vehicles, saying that oh, it's so cute.
I like my little space just for myself.
And we kind of share the videos.
Remember Yuxuan, that there are a lot of young people, particularly girls, who like to decorate their own little vehicle, the interior design.
Put on carpet and maybe... And maze designs.
Yeah.
And also a blanket to make it comfortable.
Looks like a lauto living room.
Yeah, an outdoor living room of their own.
And there are also comments saying, I like spending time in here after work.
Play some music, just fold and lay down on the driver's seat and just rest here.
There's no need for me to respond to or compete with anyone.
I feel peaceful.
But in the meantime it cannot be overlooked that there are also comments on the negative side driving experiences these young people discovered.
For example, the brake isn't very responsive.
It can still move even with the handbrake pulled up.
And the shock absorption is relatively poor, meaning that it can shake you up and down on a bumpy road.
That sounds dangerous already.
Sounds like a very keen observation.
The brake kind of works.
That's not the description you want for a brake in a vehicle.
But what they are not complaining is definitely the price.
With one very cozy Lao Tou Le.
Now many of the young buyers say they get it within a range of 13000 to 15000 yuan.
And also one of the biggest draw is the low cost right for people to want to buy it, for it to have such a big market here in China.
Yeah, I mean, these can go down to the more expensive versions would be about 20 to 30,000 yuan.
But the cheaper versions, the basic models can be at around, I don't know, 2000 yuan or less.
That's about 250, 300 dollars.
So obviously it's a very small investment for people.
And, if you think about it, the mini luxury aesthetic value is there too, because manufacturers have gotten very creative with their branding.
They aren't strictly regulated cars.
And they will copy the designs of these famous luxury brands.
And you'll see them marketed as like low-energy Maseratis or license-free Porsche Cayenne or five-door G-Wagon off-roader or something like that.
So people kind of treat it like a toy.
But one of the problems is that they're not really being sold and marketed like a toy or something that you use in back roads somewhere off the beaten path.
And then the cars themselves, the vehicles are getting a little bit bigger, too.
Exactly.
Because Yushan just said that some of the example of young people are decorating them, which means that the the space in there is getting bigger and bigger.
Because if you are looking at the basic version of these Lao Tou Le, you cannot even like turn around in that vehicle.
So while they used to be small and flimsy, the market has shifted toward much larger vehicles that we can see.
Many popular models now reach over four meters in length and feature 7000 watt motors and hit speeds of 70 kilometers per hour.
Some or even large enough to squeezing six passengers, including children, as I mentioned, despite only being just designed for four.
Yeah.
And now you told me, maybe a couple of days ago Yushan, that some people in residential neighborhoods or within apartment complexes.
What was it that you told me?
That some people will have a lao tou le only to use it to reserve their parking space?
Yeah, that's a very smart but also kind of shameful way of reserving your own parking space inside a residential area where the parking space is limited and it's not really reserved for each and every household.
So some of the residents, they will have one of these smaller vehicles and when they're not using it in in daytime, they move their own parked car out of that space and move their la to le instead to stand that ground and claim it to be you know yours in some way, and then you go to work and after work you come back with your car and then move away your la to le to park it just wherever, Just wherever.
Smart corners.
Because it's small enough that it doesn't take up that much space.
But they are getting large enough that they can fill up a parking space and this is annoying some people in residential spots.
But those aren't the only complaints that people have.
There are more, and there are also – let's talk about it now.
I mentioned a few minutes ago we'd get to the safety risks.
Yeah.
The biggest issue is that these vehicles aren't built to same safety standards as real cars.
And most LaTollas are made with thin metal sheaths and completely lack some of these basic safety features like airbags, steel frames and also anti-collision beams.
And this means that even a minor fender bender can turn into a life-threatening disaster.
They did a crash test that didn't go so well.
Yeah.
In a crash test conducted by the China Consumers Association, three different models were slammed into a wall at just 32 kilometers per hour, which is slower than most people drive them.
And the result is that the test dummies showed a high risk of skull, rib and leg fractures.
You know, the most dangerous part that I see in this is that 32 kilometers per hour is about the speed when you're about to start, or when you just started the car for a short while, or when you've already seen the potential danger and it's trying to hit the brake hard enough for it to stop, but it's not yet there to stop yet.
The brake that kind of works, you mean?
No, I mean for normal cars, when we see a lot of low on the street and we try to avoid hitting them and hit the brake really hard.
And around that speed it's probably just within a few seconds.
You drop from 80 to 32, but it's still not enough.
And at 32, it can already cause a big enough damage to the Lao Tzu Le.
As I saw a few video clips this morning of the moments when the accidents happened between cars and Lao Tzu Le's.
A small hit that probably doesn't mean much to a car can shatter the glass and really get the door broken and get the people out of the vehicle.
You just said, you know, not made with reinforced steel or beams or the things that cars typically are required to have.
I mean, these things have some nicknames online, circulating online.
One is running time bomb.
And another is road killer.
So that speaks alone to the safety concerns that people have.
And then that's the vehicle.
That's about the vehicles, but also about the drivers, because a lot of these drivers have never even received formal training or had a driver's license.
And they often treat traffic laws apparently like a suggestion rather than a rule that needs to be followed.
So people have reported seeing them running red lights or driving the wrong way against traffic or cutting across multiple lanes without warning.
There was a Beijing resident who complained that he's scared to see these cars near him because they suddenly change lanes.
This was the quote, suddenly change lanes or drive the wrong way.
And that makes it impossible for regular drivers to predict their motives.
And I said in the beginning of this chat, it's cute.
This is a cute story until it's not a cute story.
And I said that because there have been some very serious and fatal accidents involving these vehicles.
Yes.
And these days, depending on who, or rather how, these lotto drivers are identifying themselves with.
Sometimes they think they identify themselves as cars, sometimes as motorcycles.
And that has a lot to decide with just how much risk they can put on the road and the fatal accidents that's been caused is also kind of.
The statistics here is also kind of staggering too.
And this is according to the Ministry of Transport, that there have been over 830000 accidents involving these low-speed EVs in recent years not necessarily always EV, they're vehicles and resulting in 18000 deaths and 186000 injuries.
That's a lot.
And then, in 2022 alone, Beijing saw 131 traffic accidents caused by these vehicles, leading to 138 deaths.
Yeah, and then there's the obvious concern for kids, because you said that you know grandparents will use these vehicles to drop their kids off at school and pick them up.
And for all the reasons that we just said, those statistics become alarming when thinking about safety for children in those vehicles.
All right, so...
Those are the problems, or at least some of the problems.
If we have a list of problems of that length, then why are these vehicles still being produced?
They are in kind of a gray area, as we mentioned that they cannot be registered as motor vehicles or non-motor vehicles, which means that factories are very smart about how they register these vehicles.
Instead of declaring them as regular passenger cars, which require strict safety tests and crash ratings.
And then they register them as off-highway shuttle cars or just special vehicles.
That's initially for enclosed environment.
Enclosed environment doesn't necessarily mean indoor, but you're talking about like parks or resorts, like to be driven on the pathways, and resorts or things like that.
Exactly.
So these are intended for areas like what you said, tourist parks, factories or resorts.
And once the vehicle leaves the factory, The seller simply just tells the customer that they can drive it anywhere without a license, even though it is often illegal, because the manufacturer might legally produce a vehicle labeled as tourist shuttle, meant for the theme park, but the local dealer will put it on a lot and market it as license-free Porsche or something like that.
But that's from the marketing side, right?
From the people's side, there's always a need.
Why these elders, why even young people nowadays?
They have such a need, such a requirement of, of these little vehicles.
I guess that's also the biggest reason that they're still being made, that it's sort of something that the cities haven't fixed yet.
Yeah, there's a need, there's a market.
Yeah, because for many seniors, walking one kilometer to the grocery store or to the nearest subway station that's already too long for them, too much for them, especially in bad weather rainy days, snowy days
So public transit isn't, it's often too crowded and isn't always there.
You kind of have to wait for buses, for example.
So in this case, they can't, some of the elders, they're not flexible enough to drive motorcycles.
So Laotolu is there to help, to fill in the gap where other ways cannot meet their needs, I guess.
And some mobility gap.
Right.
Yeah.
I mean, these people in these rural communities need to get around obviously, and walking 15 or 20 minutes to the post office or to the grocery store or to the pharmacy.
Like you said, it might be too painful for members of the elder community.
Also, the convenience industry.
If you think about a rural community, you're not going to see downtown traffic like you are in Beijing.
So it's probably... a lot safer to operate these vehicles in those types of small towns.
And I'm thinking about where I'm from, Tatamagosh, Nova Scotia, with a population of 1,000.
These types of vehicles would do quite well there, because we have probably 18 streets in total in the whole town.
But when they become more popular and they start to be driven in locations that they're not supposed to be driven in, and we see the accident rates going up And the fatalities, then we have a serious problem on our hands.
So when we have a serious problem, then we need policies and regulations to fix those problems.
Yeah, regulators are stepping up their game to reign in the wild west of these Lao Tzu Le.
So, starting on January the 1st 2024, major cities like Beijing Tianjin, also Luoyang in Henan province in central China, officially put their foot down.
They've banned these unauthorized low-speed electric three or four wheelers from driving on public roads and even from parking in public spaces like squares and parking lots, if you are caught with one.
Law enforcement is now authorized to step in and deal with it legally, which means they may just take away that vehicle.
They have the right to take it.
And they may get fined.
One example is that in Beijing you used to see these vehicles tucked in a lot of these corners of the residential compound or parked along the sidewalk, especially in Hutong area.
Yeah, I was going to say, because you see these quite commonly in the Hutongs, in the small alleys.
Yeah.
And that's a lot of like nature of residents in Hutong, a lot of elderly living in Hutong.
And especially in these small lanes and alleys, it is even harder for people to just you know they need to get out of these lanes and go to public bus stop to get a public transport.
So Lao Tulu is a very convenient way for them to go everywhere.
But as of early 2024, traffic police began clearing them out of public areas entirely to keep the unstable factors of traffic in check.
But just a fact check here, because it's not like this ban came out.
Every Lao Tulu is forbidden on the street.
It's not really like that.
For years, Beijing slowly rolled out different policies and it's kind of conducted on the grassroots community-based level too.
Take my community, for example.
At first.
That's like two, three years ago.
They call on to all the residences in our community saying that if you own one of these Lao Tou Le, We have a specific area opened in the northern part of our community where just go directly there and put your lotto loss there.
And if you agree to kind of like, give out your car, we agree to give you subsidies in exchange for your car, so that you don't just throw it away like that.
And there will be like um toll cars coming like just to grab everybody's lotolo and get it processed afterwards but they weren't forcing, it was not a forcing option will give you some cash back if you're willing.
Yes, that's more of a voluntary thing and gradually we see nowadays the policies shift to yep.
If you still drive one of these unlicensed vehicles on the street, then that's when the police officers have the right to kind of tell you to stop and have it take away and even fine you in some cases.
Well then, what does this mean for the people who used to rely on these vehicles, particularly in the rural communities?
Does it mean that they're stuck at home?
What about their own transportation needs, that last mile or last kilometer struggle?
Yeah.
If they're like taking out a way of public transportation, they need to introduce one for them, right?
To make sure seniors just aren't actually stuck at home.
Urban planners are looking at making public transit more age-friendly.
One big idea being discussed is creating dedicated senior bus lines that don't allow traditional commuter routes.
These buses would bypass busy office districts and instead stop directly at parks, wet markets and also hospitals, and instead of a senior having to squeeze onto a packed subway at 8 am, they could hop on a local community shuttle that specifically loops between their apartment complex and the morning vegetable market.
Yeah, like a mini bus route, so to speak.
And then there's also the commercial market that's also stepping up with a legal alternative, that's The micro electric vehicles.
So these look like Laotolo, but they're actual EVs.
They're proper cars that are road ready and you need driver's license and everything else as a large sized car.
And all rolls for the road works the same for you.
So these are like registered motor vehicles that meet national safety standards and have license plate and are covered by insurance as well.
So this is something that people can. consider as an alternative for Laotola.
Yeah, and they have these in other countries too.
They're particularly popular in Europe, where you'll find these little, tiny sized vehicles that are oftentimes or can be under 500 kilograms.
They're really small, very cute.
It makes them easy to park and easy to maneuver in congested areas.
And people are one of them is called micro Lino or micro Lino.
And people are driving these in Zurich and Munich and Paris and in Italy and Switzerland Germany, Netherlands.
They're really popular with people there.
But again, the difference is those are street legal vehicles that they're driving.
Yeah.
Some of these brands are already developing a lot of these small or tiny version of EVs.
Wuling Hongguan is one example, and it's got really popular.
And, just like the examples that we just listed, a lot of people decorate their own Wuling Hongguan inside and make it really cozy.
And it costs about the same as a high-end Laotoula, ranging from 35000 yuan to 70000 yuan, that's around 5000 to 10000.
But because it's a legal car, the driver is protected by insurance.
And if an accident happens, and also, of course, driver's license are required as well.
And another thing I would like to mention is that more refined rules or registration process should also be in place.
That means that maybe, as we said, there is a need out there.
So, and these kind of vehicles has been there for a while, and instead of one size fits all Ben, some experts are calling for a middle ground where the government develop a new category of safe, low speed vehicles specifically designed for seniors, because I remember that nowadays we can see some of these parcel delivering carts and they are legitimate, registered motor vehicles.
They got that special yellow plates.
And those vehicles look like, I don't know if they qualify as a Lao Tzu Lo, but they look the same.
The driver sits in the front.
They're cute, too.
Driver sits in the front, and then in the back, it's all for packaging.
There's no real back seats to them.
They are for delivery purposes.
But those are mini vehicles, too.
Yeah, and they have a speed limit of 25 kilometers per hour, which also makes them to have a sticker at the back of their vehicle saying that don't honk, I have a speed limit and I am a legitimate vehicle.
They can share the road with the rest of you.
Yes.
So there is kind of a way, even though there are different situations, because they're delivering just parcels, not human beings.
But, as the experts are saying, maybe we can find out a middle ground or some ways to figure this out.
Yeah, and I think that's the key point right there.
That you said is the middle ground, because these have been a part of, especially in the rural communities, a part of the culture since the 1990s.
You said
Mm-hmm.
And families rely on these small, low-cost vehicles to get their kids to school and to run errands.
And grandmas and grandpas rely on them to be able to be active outside of the house, because it allows them to be mobile.
If you take away that option, like you said before, you have to give them another option.
Yeah.
You know, mini bus routes and things of that nature.
Will that work?
Maybe, maybe not.
Grandma and Grandpa probably don't want to give up their Lao Tolo.
But when we're looking at statistics involving fatalities, then obviously changes especially when it comes to safety, need to be made.
And therefore, perhaps meeting halfway is a good way to do that.
