Description

Made from 1945 to 1955

Part of the collection of Harry Kraemer's vintage three wheelers.

Awards & honors 2015 -
EPBC Show - Best unrestored
EPBC Show - Best of Show

Awards & honors 2017
Invited to the Laytonsville Parade

Click here for a slide show of vehicles currently in the collection

This original example is either from China or Taiwan. This is in an unrestored condition.

This is a Model V9 Passenger Pedicab

Here is a video of it in action




Pedicabs with three wheels were once the king of the road in Taiwan. They replaced the much more labor-intensive two-wheeled rickshaws shortly after 1945. A handful of both can still be seen today at some tourist spots.

In 1968 a law banning pedicabs was enacted. The government purchased most of the pedicabs and dismantled all 14,000 of them. And drivers were retrained to operate taxicabs.

There were three types of pedicabs: (1) stationed; (2) free-flowing; and (3) privately-owned, each had a different registration and mode of operation. Those stationed in one location could be hired out, after negotiating the price with the customers, but no fares were allowed on their return, strictly one-way. The free-flowing cabs could cruise the streets and pick up passengers anytime - if they were not too close to the cab stations. The private ones were owned by well-to-do citizens and high officials, operated by an employed "chauffeur", and the cabs were usually metallic and painted blue, not the usual wooden and green.

The switch from pedicabs to taxicabs was made possible when Yue-Loong began mass-producing passenger automobiles in Taiwan: More accurately, YL imported and assembled parts made by Nissan in Japan, at least in the beginning.

Taiwan Pedicabs brochure

Click here for a video of this in operation

Below is a video of several of the 3 wheelers in action.