＂Old Man Le＂ entered a dead end.

　　Recently, the controversial "old man music" has stood on the C position of public opinion. The reason is that the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau once again stressed that since January 1, 2024, illegal electric three-and four-wheeled vehicles are not allowed to drive on the road, and they are not allowed to park in public places such as roads, squares and parking lots. If you drive or park on the road illegally, the law enforcement department will investigate and deal with it according to law.

　　It’s not just talk. Immediately, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce coordinated the Beijing Automobile Circulation Industry Association to organize enterprises to build an online recycling platform, providing online recycling services to facilitate car owners to sell their vehicles, which has the potential to completely eradicate the "old man’s joy".

　　"It’s cheating for the old man to enjoy the car circle."

　　"Old Man Le" is not a fixed scooter brand, but a collective name for some cheap and inferior electric cars on the market. The reason why they are collectively called "Old Man Le" is because the biggest customer group of these scooters is the elderly.

　　With the characteristics of low price, no licensing, no driver’s license, no insurance and convenient charging, the sales of low-speed electric vehicles, commonly known as "Lao Toule", have been increasing in recent years, and products that look like classic models of Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Bentley and other brands have been launched "with the times", which not only won a large number of elderly fans, but also successfully captured the hearts of many young people.

　　For the "young people" who have just entered the workplace and have little savings, the price of "Old Man Music" is not high, and it is easy to operate. Some manufacturers are well versed in young people’s aesthetics, and all kinds of macaroon colors and salts have a high value. Foot pads, seat covers, steering wheel covers, curtain hooks and car accessories are all available, and the driving experience is almost the same as that of a car. At one time, it became a "dream car" for young people.

　　But no matter how exquisite it is, it can’t change its "non-motor vehicle" nature. There are two main points about "Old Man Music". First, the quality is poor: there is no chassis, no seat belts, and no airbags. Zou Zhikun, a citizen, believes that "the old man’s music is a layer of iron, which will be scrapped when it hits, and the safety factor is extremely low. Opening the old man’s music and sitting in the old man’s music is a life."

　　Second, they don’t obey the traffic rules: the old man likes to grab the road, change lanes at will, go retrograde, love the expressway, but don’t like to watch the traffic lights. Pei Yingchao, the owner of the car, was tired of mentioning "Old Man Le". "I was afraid of this thing when I saw it. I almost ran into it. You see it was driving well on the roadside in front, and you can’t be sure when it suddenly turned; You see that it is parked on the side of the road, but you don’t know when it suddenly started and inserted into the driveway. "

　　Pei Yingchao bluntly said, "This car is simply cheating in the car circle, and it also occupies my parking space. In their eyes, there are no zebra crossings and traffic lights at all. The pedestrian road blocks the road and runs around on the expressway, and even runs in the middle of the motorway. What is even more frightening is that the lights are not turned on when driving at night. In order to save electricity, I totally rely on road lighting. I am too supportive of banning pure road killers!"

　　"The bigger the city, the faster the old man is banned."

　　There have been many complaints from the public. In November 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other six ministries and commissions issued the Notice on Strengthening the Management of Low-speed Electric Vehicles, which clearly stated that the old scooter belongs to the category of low-speed electric vehicles that were included in the supervision this time. At that time, the working idea was to "upgrade a batch, standardize a batch and eliminate a batch". Therefore, in addition to requiring all localities to clean up and rectify the existing production capacity, the Notice also prohibits the addition of new low-speed electric vehicle production capacity.

　　Since then, many low-speed electric vehicle manufacturers have begun to upgrade by acquiring production qualifications and cooperating with traditional car companies. Among them, the most concerned thing is that Reading Automobile, which is known as the "old man is a brother", acquired Sichuan Automobile Mustang at a high price of 1.45 billion yuan, thus obtaining a full set of automobile production qualifications and moving to the new energy automobile market. However, the transformation ended abruptly with a new bankruptcy review case of Reading Automobile on May 7 this year.

　　From the perspective of supervision, since 2021, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, together with the relevant departments of transportation, commerce, market supervision, urban management and law enforcement, has insisted on combining the source management and sales links with the road surface standardization and traffic order, vigorously carried out the action of "cutting off the source" of illegal sales, and continued to promote the comprehensive management of electric tricycles. On March 29th, when Jiangsu Province deliberated the Regulations on Road Traffic Safety in Jiangsu Province (Revised), it clearly proposed to strengthen the supervision of the production and sales of "old scooter". Wuhu City, Anhui Province also announced that it will set up electric three-and four-wheeled vehicles in the main urban area from April 15 to strictly manage the road sections and comprehensively strengthen management through strict measures.

　　Fan Yongjun, secretary-general of Chengdu New Energy Automobile Industry Promotion Association, believes that the old scooter belongs to the "reduced version" of motor vehicles, and many old scooters are not only used for the old scooter but also for operation. Drivers often don’t obey the traffic rules, and the uninsured "old man le" and the insured car are prone to disputes or even "cheat insurance" in the event of a traffic accident, which does have great security risks. Therefore, it is a trend to ban "old people’s music" in big cities, and "the bigger the city, the faster it will be banned."

　　"A cost-effective tool that ordinary people can’t give up"

　　However, there is not only one voice of "support" for banning "old people’s music". Zhou Junbo, who has been working in the low-speed scooter market for ten years, was forced to change careers more than a year ago because of the sharp decline of the industry. He told the reporter of China Auto News that he was able to work in this industry for so long because he recognized the old scooter as a product.

　　In fact, it is a cliche to ban the scooter for the elderly, but why is it repeatedly banned? Because this market demand always exists. For the elderly who are inconvenient to travel, families with low incomes, and rural areas that are unknown to many people, low-speed scooters are a cost-effective means of transportation that many ordinary people can’t give up. "Young people are busy with work, and the elderly pick up their children to go to school, but they can’t afford a car or have no number plate at home. If there is no low-speed scooter, it will be difficult to encounter wind and snow." Zhou Junbo said.

　　Gao Yilin, who lives in the suburbs of Beijing, also told reporters that "Old Man Music" is found in almost every family in the suburbs of Beijing. Nowadays, there are few young people in rural areas, and it is essential for the elderly to pick up their children, go to the market and go to the fields.

　　Fan Yongjun also believes that if the "old man music" is really banned completely, the new energy vehicle of A0A00 class that everyone guesses may not have a chance to make up for it, which depends on the specific user groups. If young people are using it, maybe new energy vehicles have a chance; However, if the users are mostly elderly people who have no driver’s license, the market demand for this part may not be filled.

　　In Zhou Junbo’s view, the low-speed scooter does have the chaos of shoddy construction and lack of national standards, but it is actually safer than two-wheeled battery cars and three-wheeled electric cars without sheds. Since the first two models still have living space, the "old man le" will be hacked to death with a knife?

　　He believes that many people have confused a concept. In fact, the "old scooter" with a length of less than 3 meters and the "low-speed electric vehicle" with a length of 3 ~ 3.5 meters are two types of products. The quality and safety of "low-speed electric vehicles" are higher, which is very close to A00-class new energy vehicles. However, due to the limitation of funds and strength, such enterprises have failed in the process of transformation and upgrading, resulting in the current situation that "low-speed electric vehicles" have almost completely withdrawn, while "old scooters" are still active in the market, showing a typical situation of "bad money driving out good money".

　　04

　　"The development of low-speed car industry should be guided rather than prohibited"

　　Controversy continues but it is repeatedly banned. Should the low-speed scooter go or stay? During the interview, many people thought it was time for strict supervision, but the "one size fits all" ban did not seem to be an ideal solution.

　　Zhou Junbo believes that over the years, multi-level regulatory authorities have issued relevant management documents many times, but the implementation is not strong; I also tried to introduce the national standard for low-speed scooters, and finally it went away. In the vast rural areas, many elderly people are inconvenient to move, because they are too old or lack of education, they can’t take a driver’s license, and there is no bus on time to catch up with their children to go to school. Low-speed scooters have a broad mass base.

　　It is suggested that the regulatory authorities should thoroughly investigate the rural situation, formulate reasonable regulatory measures and strictly implement them to guide rather than prohibit the development of the industry without killing the low-speed scooter with one stick. "After all, in some rural areas, low-speed electric vehicle companies are still the backbone of the local economy." Zhou Junbo said.

　　Gao Yilin also believes that the low-speed scooter industry has existed for so many years but has not formed an industry standard. The government later introduced the standard for electric bicycles, but the models such as "Old Man Le" are not within the standard range. It is not easy to form an industry, but it is not easy to control urban traffic chaos, and it must be cured.

　　It is suggested to delimit the limit range in the central city, upgrade the "Old Man Le" of the traditional engine to electric power, expand the national standard of electric bicycles, cover the old man Le, introduce mandatory speed limit and other regulatory requirements, and strictly supervise the production and use links. In this way, ordinary people have some use, old and environmentally-friendly products have been cleaned up, and some potential safety hazards have been solved, and some experience can be accumulated for the comprehensive electrification of automobiles in the future; At the same time, the original industrial chain should not be broken up, and the transformation opportunity should be found according to the idea of manufacturing a strong country.

　　Fan Yongjun suggested that low-speed scooters should be supervised, and driving test standards suitable for this group of people should be introduced for the elderly with relatively low cultural level and understanding ability; At the same time, when the license plate is specified on the old scooter, the relevant driver needs to have relevant training certificates and be guaranteed by more than one immediate family member with a formal driver’s license. "In a word, the supervision of low-speed scooters is really difficult. How to meet the travel needs of ordinary people and ensure the safe and orderly traffic environment is quite a test of the wisdom of managers."

　　(At the request of the interviewee, Zhou Junbo is a pseudonym)

　　The following are the views and opinions of some netizens.