Thada managing director Syaiful Hassan Nodin (left) and Oyika president Carl Wong at the memorandum of understanding signing ceremony on Wednesday. Photo supplied
Malaysia's Thada has agreed to produce 1,000 electric scooters this year for Singaporean-owned Oyika Pte Ltd to outfit with its battery-swap technology and put on the market in the capital, playing a part in the government’s environmental conservation endeavours.
A memorandum of understanding was signed to this effect by Oyika president Carl Wong and Thada managing director Syaiful Hassan Nodin on March 31 as part of their business expansion in Southeast Asia, Thada said in a press release.
Under the agreement, the two companies will expand battery-share services to Cambodian rural communities in a bid to trim costs associated with electric scooters and curb the number of traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) motorbikes in use, it said.
Both firms have ambitious expansion plans for the Southeast Asian region, which according to Thada boasts a market of 250 million motorbikes. Oyika also launched offices in Indonesia in October, it said.
Thada will by July supply an initial 100 Malaysian-made scooters for Oyika to convert to the battery-swap system as part of its ride-sharing fleet under Thada’s new G02 brand, the Malaysian scooter maker said.
“We are excited about the electric motorbike opportunity in Cambodia,” Thada’s Syaiful said. “There are almost three million motorbikes in Cambodia and of those we estimate that only a few thousand are electric. With falling battering prices and Oyika’s battery-swap system, we’re confident that many riders will switch to electric motorbikes.”
According to Oyika’s Wong, Southeast Asia has the world’s highest density of motorcycles and less than 0.1 per cent are electric.
“There is tremendous upside potential and it’s also an area where we can make an impact on reducing carbon emission and playing a role in the urgent issue of climate change,” he said during the signing.
According to Oyika, it has been working on its battery-share concept for electric motorbikes since 2018 and made its debut in the Kingdom in July 2019.
Oyika has deployed a network of 11 “swap stations” throughout the capital, Thada said, adding that the battery-share model solves two of the major potential problems faced by electric motorbikes – charging times and range per charge.
A depleted battery can be swapped for a new one in under 60 seconds with Oyika’s system, whereas charging a typical lead-acid battery could take as long as eight hours, Thada said.
And according to Oyika, sharing e-motorbike batteries will help ease the financial burden of purchasing one, which can account for 50 per cent or more of the total cost of the vehicle.
Citing Indonesia as an example, the firm has said the battery-share solution can reduce the costs of e-motorbike ownership without the need for government subsidies, and provide a viable contender to subsidised petrol fuel.
Around a tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent can be saved per year for each petrol motorbike replaced by an electric model, or equivalent to planting 16.5 trees over 10 years, Thada said citing the US Environmental Protection Agency.
According to the Ministry of Public Works and Transport’s 2019 annual report, there were more than five million registered vehicles in the Kingdom that year.
Of these, 85 per cent were motorbikes, with e-motorbikes accounting for less than 0.1 per cent of them. In 2019, 640,183 new vehicles were registered, of which 531,269 were motorbikes.
