Solar-powered tricycles help Cubans navigate fuel shortages and blackouts
Many are fitted with solar panels and cost $2,000 to $4,000, as owners turn to them to move goods and passengers through shortages.
- In Havana, Cuba, electric tricycles have replaced iconic vintage cars as the primary means of transportation for hundreds of thousands of Cubans grappling with a prolonged fuel crisis.
- President Donald Trump's January tariff threats against nations selling oil to Cuba exacerbated fuel shortages, causing oil tanker arrivals to plummet from eight monthly to a single vessel in late March.
- Electric tricycles from Chinese brands such as Zonsen, Jinpeng, and Vedca dominate the market, with many owners installing solar panels on vehicle awnings to recharge without relying on the island's strained power grid.
- These tricycles cost between $2,000 and $4,000, forcing many Cubans to sell gasoline vehicles or invest business profits to afford them, while riders pay about 500 pesos—less than $1—per trip.
- Engineer Carlos Álvarez notes that solar modifications costing about $500 pay off quickly, as owners increasingly view these vehicles as a permanent solution to navigating Havana's ongoing energy instability.
27 Articles
27 Articles
In Cuba, people acquire electric tricycles and use them as new public transport, as an alternative to gasoline shortages.
Associated Press News
Solar-powered tricycles help Cubans navigate fuel shortages and blackouts
Cuba's vintage cars have largely vanished, but they are now being replaced by small electric tricycles.
Solar-powered electric rickshaws have become a mainstay mode of transportation for Cubans amidst a fuel crisis and prolonged power outages. Electric rickshaws...
The new vehicles, which have become popular in Cuba, are not ordinary electric tricycles. Many Cubans have equipped them with solar panels, allowing recharging without depending on the island nation's oversold electricity grid, according to AP. The three-wheeled vehicles are far from the old cars that just a year ago were sweeping the streets spitting clouds of black smoke. Tricycles, with a cost of between $2,000 and $4,000, are used for freigh…
Cuba's famous time machines almost disappeared, and in their place came small electric tricycles, most of which were manufactured in China. They became the main means of...
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