ebike rental experience in Bago, Myanmar

I had not ridden electric scooters before, except a test drive of recently launched Ather energy scooter in Bengaluru. There were several models of electric vehicles in India since years, but they all had failed to take off due to higher pricing, limited range, high battery cost and reliability concerns.

In Bago, Myanmar, I got an opportunity to rent an ebike for couple of hours from my hotel- Kanbawza Hinthar and ride around. This post shares the same experience.

I was told this particular ebike had a top speed of 15 kmph and battery would last about 3-4 hours approx. The battery is removable and is kept for charging at security's office- once a customer books the bike, a charged battery is inserted into the bike and handed over to the customer. I tried finding its make and model but am unsuccessful. Alibaba has a few similar looking models (like Shero) etc listed for around 300-350 USD each.

The ride on this e-bike was very bumpy as the suspension was very poor. Had to go extreme slow on bad roads. The e-bike does come with a pillion seat but I seriously doubt if it can pull two adults at decent speed. During many uphill rides it did run out of power and I had to push it a bit till we reached a level ground. Basket on the front is very helpful. There was no turn indicators.

The operation was very smooth- just turn the key and rotate accelerator to move forward. Noise is bare minimum- I got lots of stares from curious onlookers as I rode this. eBike isn't very common thing in Myanmar. Petrol is very cheap at about 40-45 INR equivalent per litre in Myanmar.

Above: With battery

Below: Battery removed. Battery seems heavy.

The instrument cluser had an indicator of battery % (like 80, 60, 40, 20 etc) and a speedometer

This eBike came with a pedal- in case battery runs out one can use it as a cycle- even the Smartron bike being readied for sale in India comes with a removable battery and a peddle (will cost INR 50K + with top speed of 25kmph)

The 4 hour range means you can't go too far and need to come back to hotel/where you rented it for replacement, but it was very nice and economical to ride it around to explore a few places- Otherwise I had to walk a lot or spend money on bike taxis.

eBikes are now slowly becoming available for rent in most south east asian countries- most low capacity ones may not even need a license- very convenient for exploring nearby areas.

This particular model is not available in India. But we have other models with similar characteristics. You can read below posts about my Ather Experience
Ather 450 review * FAQs * Economics of owning an eBike* Mahindra Reva e2O experience * Bike rental experience in Bali * Bike rental experience in Phuket *