TucTucs Come to Brighton
by Bonnie Alter, London on 07.12.06
These three-wheeled mo-peds, named after the sound of their noisy engines, originated in Asia, where they are notorious for weaving in and out of traffic at heart-stopping speeds. Dominic Ponniah used them whilst on a gap year in India and became convinced that they were the answer to Brighton’s congestion problems. He has now imported a fleet of 12 from India and refitted them with quiet low-emission engines that run on compressed natural gas. He said "The emissions are really low. There is no lead output, an 80% reduction in emissions of carbon monoxide and CO2 is down 40%.” There is no electric version of the vehicle available yet. The english versions have hoods and curtains to keep out the rain and cold and seatbelts and roll-bars. There is a tradition of painting and decorating the vehicles in wild colours and designs, almost like folk art. These English tuctucs will follow suit; with one painted as a Union Jack, another in Burberry plaid ( a “Chavrolet”) and a yellow one as swiss cheese. The drivers will have a matching designer uniform. They will be run along a special beach route on a timetable, with a flat fare. :: TucTuc Ltd. via BBC News
I've been to India and those three wheelers are ubiquitous. In India though they're used soley for taxi service, so far as I could tell, and it didn't seem anybody owned them for private use. Further there wasn't so far as I could tell any tradition of painting the vehicle itself, though they found other ways to pimp the ride (so to speak).
I want to mention, though, that there is or soon will be electric three wheelers available from Mahindra.
I covered it here: http://www.7gen.com/blog/transportation/electric-vehicles/mahindra-hikes-three-wheeler-capacity/901
I think one motivating factor they have is that at the Taj Mahal, the delicate limestone is being eroded by the chemicals in exhuast pollution. As a result the Indian Government has banned all fossil fuel powered traffic for a large diameter around the Taj Mahal. Thus it behooves them to develop some electric vehicles so the tourists can get to the building without complaining.
Another interesting thing is many of the vehicles I saw in Bangalore had been converted to run off LPG or other fuels besides gasoline. Presumably also for pollution reasons.