Taiwan has two records if we talk about mobility. It is the first country in the world in motorcycles per inhabitant. And it is the first country in the world in number of vehicles per inhabitant, as long as we remove from the equation San Marino, Guernsey (autonomous islands off the coast of Normandy that respond to the United Kingdom), the autonomous state of Jersey and Andorra, all of them spaces where, let’s say, they are used as monetary refuges.
According to the data As collected by the statistics group within the United Nations, Taiwan has 999 registered vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants. But that data hides another record: almost 600 of those vehicles are motorcycles.
This means that Taiwan, with its almost 24 million inhabitants, therefore has another almost 24 million vehicles. And the most recent data says that it also has more than 14 million motorcycles. The data reaches its extreme in Taipei, the capital, where there is a number slightly higher than the national average with 65 motorcycles per 100 inhabitants.
Is it a lot?
It’s a lot. To give us an idea, in Spain there are around 95 motorcycles (53 of them are mopeds) per 1,000 inhabitants, according to data from the European Union. The country with the most registered motorcycles is Greece, which reaches 251 motorcycles (150 of them are mopeds) per 1,000 inhabitants. A figure that doubles (by far) the Asian country.
This congestion of motorcycles represents a problem for the State in environmental matters. And they want to change it by jumping to the electric motorcycle.
A most ambitious challenge
According to data from the Taiwan Ministry of Transportation and CommunicationsIn 2024, 14.6 million motorcycles will be counted. They are, therefore, a substantial part of the country’s carbon emissions. 55% of those recorded in Taiwan are produced by transportation.
With the aim of converting the fully electric vehicle fleet by 2050the country has set various objectives ahead. The most ambitious is to prohibit the sale of non-electric motorcycles from 2040. Previously, the State has launched a campaign for customers to opt for this technology.
To do this, they explain in Motorpassionthe State is giving huge sums of money for the purchase of electric vehicles. Any electric vehicle, whether motorcycle, car or truck, is taken into account in its plans to help with the purchase. But it is in the former where the discounts are most juicy because they can reach 3,300 Taiwanese dollars (NT$), about 95 euros in direct exchange, in a country where a motorcycle is around 900 euros. Those looking to change a car do have greater incentives, with discounts of up to NT$16,000 (about 460 euros).
Although the state is putting pressure for motorists and drivers to change their vehicles, the results are being somewhat discreet. These subsidies have been active for three years and between 2022 and 2025 they have managed to remove from the market (to reach the maximum aid you have to scrap another combustion vehicle) just over 120,000 vehicles, adding all types of types and sizes.
A figure that pales only with motorcycle sales, since each year about 700,000 vehicles of this type are registered on the market. That is, in three years the sum of motorcycles, cars and trucks replaced It barely exceeds total scooter sales by 5% in the same period of time.
Getting the motorcycle market to switch to the electric market is key for the country. Not only because still the cheapest way to get aroundalso because it is key when it comes to reduce dependency that the country has from foreign oil. Having mobility that depends largely on renewable energies produced in the country itself is a significant step in its relations with the outside world.
Photo | Faye Yu
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