The Green Scooter Zbee is a small electric tricycle with big dreams

Green Scooter is a South African start-up that claims to introduce the first and safest electric motor-tricycle on the African continent. It has two models, the Zbee Cargo and the Zbee RS, aimed at consumers and businesses.

The company is targeting daily commuters who require a last-mile ride and consumers who want to own an affordable electric vehicle for short to medium distance trips.

It is available through a rent or rent-to-own model starting at R5,345 per month for a minimum three-month lease that goes up to 36 months.

Sowetan Motoring was recently given an exclusive test drive of the vehicle at its offices in the West Rand. It operates like to a motorbike with controls on the handlebar and has motorised wipers. Both models have a 5.14kWh battery located beneath the driver’s seat in the centre. It charges from a built-in two pin plug, and has a top speed of 60km/h.

On a single charge, the Zbee Cargo provides up to 120km of range and the Zbee RS, which seats three people, offers up to 100km of range. The Cargo model has 1200l of storage  plus a separate 50l lockable compartment for items like a backpack, laptop and fire extinguisher.

After brief tutorial in the parking lot, I zipped around to get a feel for it, and just like any other EV, it moves quickly due to instant torque. It is open on both sides, but you can zip up a clear protective shield for windy or rainy conditions. It was a fun drive and easy to manoeuvre but I felt it was more suited as a delivery vehicle rather than to get around.

Founder and CEO Fezile Dhlamini said soon after Green Scooter was founded in 2017, two macro-trends emerged that changed the game.

“The rise of electric vehicles, and the boom in delivery services as a result of the pandemic. The potential market for the Zbee Cargo delivery version suddenly got a whole lot bigger.”

Six years later, the company has attracted interest from food delivery services, courier and fleet companies and burger chain McDonalds.

The journey wasn’t easy for Dhlamini, who realised in 2018 after continuous rejections that nobody was going to fund his business. He had everything on paper, but without money or resources, he couldn’t build a prototype.

“I started another company. I built software, hardware and ran marketing campaigns, and made a lot of money from that which I pumped into Green Scooter,” said Dhlamini.

Green Scooter formed technical partnerships in Sweden, and while it initially imported the scooters from Sweden, they are now assembled in Centurion.

The Zbee scooters have three-point safety belts, reinforced fibre plastic and are crash tested vehicles, said Dhlamini.

It is the only vehicle in its class that has a three-point safety belt globally.

“People disregard quality. It’s easy to run to China and find a replica of a product but it’s the quality at the end of the day. We’re not trying to dump something into the market, which is what a lot of people are doing.

­“The one thing I’ve always been passionate about  is that we need to fight for qualityi.

“It’s easy to chat about the need to drive down the duties on imported vehicles, but why are aren’t we having a conversation with the other top seven OEMs in localising EV manufacturing?”

Green Scooter is planning its next phase at new premises in Gauteng where it hopes to do all body production, assembly and battery packing.

Dhlamini didn’t want to divulge too much but said as a South African, he wants to put the country first.

“Real value is created through the supply chain and employment is created by supporting the guy who manufactures these components.”