Rise and fall of tricycle history in the world

Tricycle history in Japan and South Korea

Whether in Japan or South Korea, the development of tricycle history has several points in common: in addition to the objective factors such as war and oil price changes, it mainly rises and falls with the development of social GDP, and tricycle history exists in the life and work of the people as a transition.

Japan – Daihatsu
Speaking of tricycle history in Japan, we must talk about the history of Daihatsu, which dates back to 1907, when the “Engine Manufacturing Co., Ltd.” was established for the purpose of producing and selling internal combustion engines. During World War II, the company was also responsible for the production of military warships.

Affected by war factors, Daihatsu started three-wheel truck production before and after the war, and completed the HA prototype in December 1930. It produced a total of 100,000 in 1953. In 1956, the total output exceeded 200,000 vehicles, and it became the main tricycle manufacturer in Japan at that time.

When the tricycle history comes to 1951, “Engine Manufacturing Co., Ltd.” officially changed its name to “Daihatsu Motor Industry Co., Ltd.” In the first few years of its establishment, with the end of military supplies, civilian use became the main demand. Daihatsu changed its strategy and began to produce small tricycles. The Midget model produced in 1957 was a vehicle at a price most people could afford, great for financially struggling small businessmen using bicycles and scooters, the Midget model suddenly became a bestseller during its sale.

With the popularity of the Midget model, Daihatsu also began to continuously update the relevant engine performance and cargo compartment size according to the needs of the people’s livelihood until the ultimate version of Daihatsu MP5 came out. However, as the supply of oil products stabilized, coupled with the continuous increase of social GDP, consumers’ demand for more modern four-wheeled motorcycles increased, and naturally MP5 was discontinued. The MP5 was produced until December 1971 and was discontinued in 1972. Over 336,534 units had been sold by 1972.

South Korea – Kia
As for tricycle history in South Korea, initially, Kia, the ancestor of Korean automobiles, was the only company that could independently develop automobiles in the economically sluggish Korean society at that time. The founder of Kia, Kim Cheol-ho, returned to Korea after World War II and founded the predecessor of Kia, Kyungsung Precision Industry Co., Ltd., whose main business was the manufacture of bicycle parts.

In 1952, Kim Cheol-ho built the first bicycle in Korea – the “Samchully” brand. In 1961, Kyungsung Precision, which had been renamed “Kia”, spent nearly ten years finally creating the small van tricycle K360, which started the tricycle history in South Korea.

Kia started gradually with tricycles as its foundation. After 1961, under the leadership of the government, South Korea changed its economic model from an “import substitution economy” to an “export-oriented economy”. As a result, South Korea’s industrial development and export trade have achieved dozens of times of development.

After several years of study and accumulation of experience, Kia has been able to independently design a model with excellent quality control. It swept the entire market with high quality and low price, and became the most competitive model in the auto market at that time. With the improvement of the economic level and the entry of cost-effective automobile products into the market, tricycle history has gradually withdrawn from the sight of Korean people.

Tricycle history in the Middle East

Since the 1980s, with the phase-out of Japanese and Korean tricycle history, many car dealers began to turn their markets to Middle East, which also created conditions for the vigorous development of tricycle history in this region, and started the tricycle history. With the competition for resources among countries in the Middle East, the gap between the rich and the poor in this region is huge, and the level of social development is generally backward.

In some countries in the Middle East, resources are very scarce due to the war, and soldiers can only use limited daily resources for modification. With the influx of tricycle products from many car companies in other countries and the sale of cheap second-hand tricycles in developed countries. Due to the advantages of strong transport capacity, flexible control, strong durability and wide use by the public, some French garrison directly use tricycles as means of transport, and the proportion of tricycle in transportation in the Middle East is rising quickly.

Affected by the industrial structure, the tricycle is widely used as a tool for people’s livelihood in the Middle East. According to the economic index, the total GDP of the Middle East region in 2021 was about 4.6 trillion US dollars, and the per capita GDP was more than 10,000 US dollars.

However, the per capita GDP of various countries in the Middle East varies greatly, and the per capita GDP of the richest Qatar has reached 93 times that of the per capita GDP of the poorest Yemen. In individual developed areas such as Qatar and Dubai, tricycles are extremely rare, while in other backward areas in the Middle East, the industrial structure is relatively unitary. It makes the tricycle more biased to the livelihood of the working tools have a greater space for existence.

The tricycle history in the Middle East is closely related to the motorcycle industry. Taking Pakistan as an example, Pakistan has a population of 225 million and a motorcycle population of 40 million, of which there are more than 2 million tricycles in Pakistan. It has a large domestic population, ranking sixth in the world, and is currently one of the most potential motorcycle sales markets in the world.

Since 2013, thanks to China’s “the Belt and Road” policy initiative, Pakistan’s national economy has developed rapidly and its per capita income has increased. Two-wheeled motorcycles can no longer meet the growing needs of the public for transportation operations, and tricycles have better loading capacity and stability, so they have naturally become an irreplaceable choice and achieved tricycle history development.

With the continuous development of the economy in the Middle East, the demand for cargo transportation is gradually expanding, whether it is a vehicle for enterprises or people’s livelihood. Cheap tricycles are gradually replacing two-wheeled motorcycles that mainly carry passengers because of their superior cargo-carrying properties. It is believed that in the future, it will continue to annex the two wheeler industry and become a mainstream means of transportation for quite a long time.

Tricycle history in South America

The tropical rainforest climate in South America is widely distributed, and agricultural and mineral products are the main export commodities. After 1980, the Japanese tricycle history gradually shifted to the Middle East and Africa, while the road conditions in the South American rainforest were complicated and there was a large demand for transportation of agricultural products. Tricycle history gradually started in South America due to their strong passability, high durability, and ability to meet the needs of freight and passengers.

Affected by the developed planting industry, tricycles continue to enhance their cargo-carrying properties, and the planting industry in South America has developed into a cost-effective and efficient operating tool.

In addition to rich resources and well-developed agriculture and animal husbandry, Brazil also has certain industrial strength and a relatively complete industrial sector. Among them, the civil regional aircraft manufacturing industry and the biofuel industry are at the leading level in the world. In other countries, due to the uneven distribution of mineral resources and the low level of domestic industry, the planting industry supported by cheap labor is extremely developed, which has also led to a wide range of application scenarios for freight tricycles in these areas.

Agriculture and animal husbandry in South America is developed but the road conditions are complex, so there is a huge demand for freight tricycles. However, many tricycle manufacturers in China have begun to turn to export trade. According to the characteristics of the region, they have built lightweight custom-made tricycles, which pay more attention to practicality.

They are equipped with a 300cc engine and use three people plus two tons of cargo as their promotional slogan. Some car companies even add differential locks to the rear four wheels, realizing the performance of off-road trucks at the price of a tricycle.

As more car companies turn their attention to the South American region and start from the application scenarios according to local conditions, it is believed that in the future, various tricycles with good off-road performance and large tonnage will emerge one after another and become the mainstream products in the production operations in this region, pushing the tricycle history.

Reasons for the rise and fall of tricycle history

South Korea

In terms of GDP development factors, South Korea’s per capita GDP exceeded 10,000 in the 1990s. It should have experienced a period of slowing growth, but it has caught up with the pace of the third wave of technology. With the upgrading of South Korea’s domestic economy and automobile products , the advantages of tricycles in terms of price and application scenarios are shrinking day by day.

As cars become cheaper and cheaper, as a productivity tool, the efficiency of cars is also higher than that of motorcycles, including custom electric motorcycle. Motor tricycles and motorcycles are obviously not as good as cars if they are used in life and production. Therefore, it was gradually disappearing from the South Korea market.

Japan

Although Japan has not fully caught up with the third wave of technology, it has basically completed wealth accumulation before then. As the per capita GPD exceeds 10,000 US dollars, people began to look for higher-quality life and the means of transportation needed for work. It can be said that the more developed the economy, the higher the penetration rate of cars must be, and motorcycles and tricycles have gradually become tools for leisure and entertainment.

Middle East and South America

Whether it is the tricycle history in Middle East, which is rich in oil, or South America, where agriculture and animal husbandry are developed, under the influence of war factors, social per capita GDP and the influx of a large number of high-quality tricycle products from other countries, people are very fond of cost-effective tricycles that meet local operating needs.

At the same time, the socio-economic and industrial structure, insufficient public transportation supply, underdeveloped transportation and logistics infrastructure, low per capita income and rising unemployment rate are the important factors that pushing the development of tricycle history in developing and underdeveloped countries.

Even in areas where vehicles such as buses, trucks and taxis cannot effectively penetrate, tricycles can bring efficient, fast and economical transportation. In a word, the advent of tricycle history has a stimulating effect for promoting the continuous innovation and upgrading of the global means of transportation.

At the same time, many countries in the people’s livelihood and economic fields have also obtained cheap but efficient working tools because of tricycles. Especially for economically underdeveloped countries and regions, the role played by tricycle history is exactly what is necessary for social development, although it is inevitable from prosperity to decline, but its value is irreplaceable.