During a recent visit to China to explore the world of electric micromobility, I was treated to a variety of personal electric vehicles. I saw everything from e-bikes to e-scooters and even e-dirt bikes. But one of the most interesting examples, and clearly the most different to Western vehicles, was what I saw during a tour of the electric tricycle factory in Wuzheng.
I know, this isn’t what most people think of when they hear the words “farm truck.” Trust me, I get it. I’m a good ol’ Southern boy who spent the first decades of my life in the southeastern United States. I grew up racing through cornfields, barrel racing, and watching tractor pulls and demolition derbies at the county fair with my dates. In other words, I know what it means to live the country life and to make a living with my hands. My current truck may be a far cry from the typical work truck you’ll find on most farms and ranches, but I get it.
So, during my bullet train ride through China’s extremely rural areas, I was amazed to see both familiar sights and some that are completely new to most Westerners. Farmers are farmers, after all. Their farmers may have traded in our worn-out baseball caps for wider, conical straw hats, but they, like us, spend long days in the fields. But what was more interesting to me was what they were using instead of our work trucks.
Across China’s vast rural landscape, electric three-wheelers appear to have become an essential part of the daily lives of farmers and workers, where these vehicles are prized for their affordability, versatility and efficiency.
Farmers use these electric three-wheelers for a wide range of tasks, from transporting harvests to local markets to carrying fertilizer, tools and crops in the fields.
The vehicles’ compact size and rugged design make them ideal for driving on the narrow, unpaved country roads found in much of rural China — roads that are difficult for larger trucks to navigate — and because they don’t require the purchase or storage of expensive diesel fuel, they can be cheaply charged anywhere an extension cord can be plugged in.
To see how these types of electric three-wheeled farm trucks are made, I visited the factory of Goseisha, one of the country’s largest three-wheeler manufacturers.
This company knows a thing or two about farm equipment. They’ve been making gasoline and diesel tractors and farm equipment since 1984, with their first internal combustion engine tricycle coming out around that time. Since then, they’ve switched their tricycles to electric, which has made them more reliable and reduced maintenance. Additionally, electric vehicles require less maintenance and cheaper fuel, making them much less expensive to own and operate. The reduced cost of ownership is the main reason why I saw so many electric tricycles around the Chinese countryside, and they were in use on almost every farm I passed.
One of the main reasons for the widespread adoption of electric tricycles in China’s rural areas is their cost-effectiveness. Traditional vehicles such as tractors and trucks are often prohibitively expensive for small farmers and rural workers. In contrast, electric tricycles are much cheaper to purchase and maintain. Moreover, the electricity used to charge these vehicles is significantly cheaper than gasoline or diesel, making them an economically sustainable option for everyday use. This affordability increases the mobility and working range of rural workers, enabling them to transport heavier loads over longer distances at minimal cost.
This design is also optimized for everyday use. The bed is lower than a typical pickup truck’s bed, making loading easier, especially on the long side rails. Tricycles usually have tailgates and side gates that can be converted into a flatbed truck in seconds. The bed almost always tilts, so it can turn into a dump truck when needed.
A visit to Wuzheng’s factory revealed a lot about how the company is able to produce hundreds of thousands of electric tricycles every year.
The factory, just one of many on Wuzhen’s sprawling campus, had two assembly lines operating side by side, both producing electric three-wheelers, one with an open top and the other with a fully enclosed cab.
Both styles are popular for different applications, but the underlying frames and components are largely the same. To create both, the company sources its raw materials at another huge, neighboring warehouse, where huge spools of steel are cut and hammered into the sheet metal panels that surround the vehicles.
At the same time, steel tubes are cut, shaped, and welded into the tricycle frame and sub-assemblies.
The work is largely manual, with different workers specializing in different aspects, from operating the cutting and forming machines to welding the individual frame members and cab panels. Unlike other factories that are seeing increasing levels of automation, this process appears to be primarily completed by human workers rather than robots. Automation is still high in Chinese manufacturing, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see even more robotic tasks in the coming years.
From there, the frame and body are passed on to the coating and painting stages where they begin to take on a recognizable shape.
The chassis alone roughly resembles what we’d think of as a “normal” truck body, and it’s only with the addition of a single front wheel that the trike characteristics become apparent.
And exactly what happens next is that the chassis moves to the assembly line, where it’s transformed from a pile of parts into a fully functional working vehicle.
A series of work stations equipped with gantry cranes lower the main section of the vehicle into place while workers manually install parts.
From there, the vehicles are finished with Wuzheng branding, then transported straight from the end of the assembly line to a staging yard for final testing and then loaded onto trucks for distribution across the country.
Goseisha has hundreds of dealerships across the country and is one of the largest electric tricycle manufacturers, selling hundreds of thousands of electric tricycles every year.
But before the company’s two different types of machines were loaded onto trucks and delivered, I had the chance to borrow them for a few minutes and drive them around the facility for myself.
The first model I tested was the open-top version, which makes up the majority of electric tricycles you’ll see in rural China. They’re the most cost-effective as they don’t have the extra expense and complexity of an enclosed cabin.
The lack of doors means you’ll likely have to get in and out multiple times when driving around the fields or completing various tasks.
These are typically rated to carry hundreds of kilograms, sometimes more than a ton (2,200 pounds). Riding around with an empty bed clearly wasn’t going to strain the machine, so I asked a few of my company’s employees to join me for a ride; performance was no different with four grown men (or three grown men and a juvenile journalist) on board.
This is no surprise, as these electric three-wheelers are commonly seen piled high with heavy loads like produce, or used to deliver bulk goods like heavy cases of bottled drinks. The vehicles regularly carry hundreds of kilograms of goods, and are equipped with high-torque electric motors to handle the loads.
We then entered an enclosed vehicle. This time, the cabin had a door and the interior was waterproof. Interestingly, the handle on the front wheels had been replaced with a steering wheel. From inside, the vehicle felt like a standard 4-wheeler, as the wheels in front were not visible.
Power was more than adequate and handling was very good, and although neither car had a particularly sophisticated suspension setup, it was perfectly fine for navigating the rough, bumpy terrain we were traversing.
The enclosed version obviously offers a big advantage in bad weather, keeping the rider dry in the rain and allowing the use of air conditioning in the hot summer.
The main issue that most people probably wonder about is stability. We all know that tricycles are not as stable as four-wheelers, but what about tipping over?
I tested the vehicle myself, doing donuts in a parking lot and never had any issues with rollover. The machine has a heavy battery mounted low in the chassis and the motor mounted even lower on the axle.
This means that the car’s centre of gravity is so low that you’d have to go faster around the hairpin bends than the car is capable of to actually roll it.
This is not the same as the electric trikes I often cover, which easily lift off the wheels in tight turns. With an electric trike, the rider weighs more than the machine and sits significantly higher than the centerline axle. In the case of these Chinese farm trucks, the rider weight is a small fraction of the total vehicle weight, and they are designed to maintain a super low center of gravity and optimize stability. It’s a lot of work to tip a vehicle when most of the weight is at axle level.
Visiting Wuzheng’s factory and experiencing this type of work vehicle first-hand was an eye-opening experience. The affordability, efficiency, environmental benefits and practicality of these electric three-wheelers have made them an essential tool for Chinese farmers and rural workers.
As rural China moves toward modernization and sustainable development, these vehicles will remain a cornerstone of everyday life, increasing agricultural productivity and improving the quality of life for millions of rural people. With prices starting at under the equivalent of $1,000 USD, these vehicles are a much more affordable and affordable choice for the average working family.
And just because it’s shaped differently than the farm trucks we’re used to doesn’t mean it can’t haul the same amount of hay bales or bushels of corn — it just means there are fewer wheels in contact with the ground and more wind in your hair.
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