Solar-powered tricycles help Cubans navigate fuel shortages, blackouts
Drones light up the night sky during K-Drone Festival at a park
in Incheon, South Korea, on Wednesday. (PTI)
HAVANA, July 15: Cuba’s iconic vintage cars have all but disappeared and in their place, small electric tricycles — most of them made in China — have become the primary means of transportation for hundreds of thousands of Cubans grappling with a prolonged fuel crisis.
These are no ordinary electric tricycles — many Cubans have outfitted them with solar panels, allowing the vehicles to recharge without relying on the island nation’s strained power grid.
The three-wheelers are a far cry from the old-timers that only a year ago cruised the streets spewing clouds of black smoke.
“This is how people get around now,” said 40-year-old Liecer de la Cruz, who owns one of these vehicles. The tricycles, with a cost between $2,000 and $4,000, are used to transport goods and serve fixed routes once covered by buses.
While their price is out of reach for most Cubans, many have sold their older gasoline-powered cars to buy the tricycles. Others got them from relatives abroad, where they are generally cheaper, and some small-business owners even used their profits to invest in them, expecting to recoup the cost.
In January, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on countries that sell oil to Cuba, which produces only about 40% of the fuel it needs. Since then, just a single oil tanker has arrived on the island, in late March — down from about eight a month previously.
Rolling blackouts have worsened, exacerbating hardships in a country whose economy has been in crisis for five years. Shortages of food and medicine have deepened, and public transportation has been sharply reduced.
Amid the crisis, electric tricycles have become indispensable. They transport goods, serve fixed routes once covered by buses and, in some Havana neighborhoods, they are used to collect garbage.
People with heavy shopping bags can catch rides on the tricycles — a slow, hot and uncomfortable ride. But it’s better than walking. (AP)
