TEHRAN – The first phase of electric motorcycles development project will be implemented aiming at reducing air pollution in Tehran and other metropolises, IRNA news agency reported.

Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said on Tuesday that electric motorcycles will be promoted in big cities in collaboration with the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade.

Through the first phase of the project, electric motorcycles will replace the regular ones used by the Ministry of Energy and state-run companies, he explained.

Ardakanian went on to say that, in addition to electric motorcycles being manufactured and marketed from now on, existing motorcycles will also change to use electricity sources.

Of all 32.9 million vehicles in the country, motorcycles amount to 11.6 million, accounting for 35 percent of the total vehicles moving in the country, 56 percent of motorcycles are plying the roads in only 5 provinces of Tehran, Khorasan Razavi, Isfahan, Fars and Khuzestan, Ali Mohammadi, a senior traffic police official told IRNA in July 2019.

According to a report by the World Bank, motorcycles are the second largest contributor to particulate matter (PM) in Tehran, even before cars which greatly outnumber them. 

One of the main reasons behind their high contribution to emissions is that a large part of the fuel consumed in motorcycles burns incompletely. The Tehran motorcycle fleet consists mostly of carburetor-equipped motorcycles which are typically less fuel efficient and emit more emissions compared to newer, fuel injection technology.

Carburetors on motorcycles produce 15.5 grams of emissions per kilometer, which is six times higher than a Euro 2 car, he regretted.

According to studies, 5 carburetor equipped motorcycles generates particulate matter as much as an extremely old diesel bus, while replacing carburetors with fuel injection can reduce particulate matter by 90 percent.

FB/MG