Bangkok (VNA) – Bangkok has launched the “EV for Win Riders” project to speed up the shift to electric motorcycle taxis through a pilot rental-and-trial model, aiming to curb pollution and reduce riders’ operating costs.
Governor of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) Chadchart Sittipunt said motorcycle taxi riders form a crucial part of Bangkok’s transport system and could play a major role in reducing carbon emissions.
He said shifting to EVs is a key strategy to cut air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions while also reducing fuel costs—helping riders increase income opportunities and strengthen economic security.
The initiative is being implemented with Germany’s international cooperation agency GIZ, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), and the Electric Vehicle Association of Thailand (EVAT).
The project aims to address structural barriers by testing a lease-to-ride model priced at 75–140 THB (2.5–4.49 USD) per day. It will also prepare charging infrastructure, including standard charging and battery swapping, to support faster turnaround for riders.
In the first phase, more than 200 participants—motorcycle taxi riders and BMA street sweepers in Din Daeng and Phaya Thai districts—will join trials and receive information on operating costs.
Thirty representatives will then be selected to take EV motorcycles into real service for one month free of charge. Data collected will be analysed to support possible expansion city-wide.
Research under the Thai-German Cooperation on Energy, Mobility and Climate (TGC EMC) project found Bangkok has more than 89,000 motorcycle taxi riders across over 5,300 stands, described as an essential “capillary transport” network.
The study estimated the current petrol-based system emits around 80,000–100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually and produces PM2.5 pollution equivalent to burning 608ha of rice fields, or comparable to emissions from 2,000 older red public buses over a year./.
