It can be fully charged in four or five hours, with a range of 80 to 100 kilometers. The car is equipped with warm air, fan, radio, MP3, etc. the promotion price is 17000 yuan... At the door of an electric car store in Chaoyang District, Beijing, the owner Gao Gang (pseudonym) is introducing several elderly scooters to customers.

  "Now the elderly scooters are selling very well. There are too many on the street. This is also divided into off-season and peak season. At least one car is sold in a month in summer and four or five cars in winter." Gao Gang told the reporter of Legal Daily.

  Gao Gang introduced that whether it is a three wheel electric vehicle or a four-wheel electric vehicle, the speed of the elderly scooter in the store can reach 40 kilometers per hour, which belongs to a low-speed electric vehicle.

  The so-called low-speed electric vehicle refers to a four-wheel vehicle driven by pure electric energy with a speed of less than 70 kilometers per hour. At present, the catalogue of road motor vehicle manufacturers and products does not contain any low-speed electric vehicles.

  However, benefiting from the characteristics of low price and no driver's license, the sales volume of low-speed electric vehicles in the market is much higher than that of pure electric passenger vehicles. Taking the data of 2015 as an example, the national output of low-speed electric vehicles is about 700000, much higher than the national output of 152000 pure electric passenger vehicles in the same period.

  This is only the data statistics of low-speed electric vehicles, not including fuel powered scooters. The reporter learned from the investigation that the shape of this fuel scooter is basically the same as that of the electric scooter, and the price is not much different, but the speed can reach more than 70 kilometers per hour.

  Whether it is a fuel scooter or an electric scooter, another common feature is that it does not need a driver's license and license plate and is easy to use. According to Gao Gang, the operation of electric vehicles sold on the market is very simple. "Just leave when you power on and stop when you step on the brake. It's easy to get started".

However, along with the low threshold of use, there is a discounted "safety design".

  Although it has the shape of an ordinary car, the shell will not be made of steel and aluminum, but more of low-cost FRP, which can be torn apart at a speed of 15kmh; The design of light chassis and high body makes it easy to float and tilt during driving; Brake components are thin and easy to be damaged; There is no anti-collision energy absorption structure outside the body, and there are no safety belts and airbags inside the body... Unreasonable design, poor safety configuration and poor materials have always been questioned.

  Zhou Qing, who has long been concerned about motor vehicle safety, believes that the "slow and fast" characteristics of elderly scooters are prone to safety accidents.

  "Slow is relative to the car. The elderly scooter can't drive as fast as the car. When the traffic is smooth, the elderly scooter driving on the main road is an obstacle to the traffic and unsafe. However, in the case of traffic jam, the elderly scooter can take advantage of its small body, which will be fast, but it is also easy to cause Scratch and further aggravate the road congestion." Zhou Qing said.

  In addition, there are elderly scooters without collision test, lack of airbag, light chassis and other potential safety hazards, and the risk factor is very high.

  "A few days ago, near Taoranting Park, which is not far from my home, an old couple had an accident driving an elderly scooter. The old lady sitting in the back row was directly thrown out, resulting in lumbar injury, and the driving wife is still lying in the intensive care unit of the hospital." Beijing citizen Jiang Ning (a pseudonym) still had lingering fear when talking about this matter to reporters.

  According to the statistics of Beijing Traffic Management Bureau, from 2011 to October 2013, 757 traffic accidents involving scooters in Beijing have occurred, 858 people were injured and 136 people died.

  It is worth noting that this hidden danger has not been eliminated with the passage of time, nor has it been reduced due to different regions. According to the statistics of the first brigade directly under the traffic police in Mianyang, Sichuan, there were 268 traffic accidents involving elderly scooters in the city in 2015.

  The China Consumer Association said in February this year that the casualties and property losses caused by the problem of scooters are not individual cases. It has repeatedly issued a warning that "there are serious potential safety hazards for elderly scooters" and suggested that the violations of laws and regulations of elderly scooters should be investigated and dealt with.