(Photo courtesy of Land Rover Media Centre)
By Guan Xiong Qiao
A 76 year old man named Sun from Henan Province driving without a license racked up 279 traffic violations in one year. In China, you get 12 points when you get your driver’s license, and when you lose the 12 points, you will be required to take a 7-day driving course in order to have a valid license. For this grandpa, he had over 800 points taken off his record, but what’s even worse is that he never even had a driver’s license in the first place. Because in China, a driver’s license isn’t required for the vehicle this traffic-violating grandpa drives, a lao tou le, which literally translates to English as “old head’s joy”, meaning an “old man’s joy”. The lao tou le is a popular small electric vehicle, usually driven by the elderly in China. While Sun’s case gets more attention because of how extreme his situation is, there’s legitimate concern over road safety and how these types of drivers and their tiny lao tou le vehicles will put other normal drivers and pedestrians in danger, increasing public risk and the chance of traffic accidents.
The electric lao tou le vehicles usually have 3 or 4 wheels, and in all outward appearance looks just like a normal car, but it’s not large enough to be classified as an actual car. Instead, it’s classified as an e-bike, which also allows it to avoid many vehicle regulations. Lao tou le are some of the cheapest vehicles to get in China, with a price range normally around 10,000 to 30,000 yuan or about $1,500 to $4,000 USD, making them especially affordable for elderly and low income citizens. Why is it so cheap? Aside from being small and electric, and drivers of this type of vehicle not needing a driver’s license to operate them, there’s no tax and no insurance needed in owning a lao tou le, which lowers the overall cost, so buying one isn’t any harder than buying a bicycle.
Over the years, lao tou le has become increasingly widespread across China, but as the market grows, there are more and more weird types of these mini vehicles coming out because of the lack of regulations. For example, a company in China called ‘MECIDES’ (clearly a mimic of the famous German brand Mercedes) makes lao tou le EV replicas of other car brands, but much smaller. They copy cars from luxury car brands like Range Rover, but give them names with unconventional spelling like “radne rqver”, or alter the logo, such as copying an Audi logo with 5 rings instead of the usual 4. There are also tiny electric trucks that copy the design of the Dodge Ram, but it can carry about 2 tons and is about the price of a tractor. Not only do they make fake luxury cars, but there are also fake Recreational Vehicle (RV) cars. For 40,000 yuan or about $5,500 USD, you can get a moving house with everything. In a viral internet story, a retired couple in China that had never left their city before ended up on an adventure traveling around the country because of the fake three-wheeled lao tou le RV they purchased.
Beginning in 2024, cities like Beijing have banned lao tou le due to a lack of standard safety measures in the regulation and operation of these vehicles. With how easy it is to get a lao tou le, only about 5% of the drivers that own a la tou le have a driver’s license, which greatly increases safety risk for the public as unlicensed drivers are basically driving car-like vehicles like bicycles. Most of the drivers haven’t even learned the basics of driving, let alone following safety rules, and they are just going on roads in any way they want, putting not just the drivers themselves in danger but also everyone else. In 2017, researchers counted about 830,000 accidents involving low-speed electric vehicles within 5 years in China, showing how often lao tou le drivers get into accidents. The People’s Government of Beijing Municipality is banning lao tou le vehicles but does allow people to use lao tou le that meet national technical requirements at the time of manufacturing, and a license and insurance are required to drive it. There will be new regulations so people who drive the car are actually trained and tested, and they encourage other modes of transportation.
Vehicles like lao tou le represent a difficult balance between accessibility and safety. For many elderly and low income citizens, these vehicles help them with gaining independence, providing a means of transportation in areas where buses are limited and an affordable car like the lao tou le can definitely fill in the gaps. However, without regulation, it’s clear that use of these vehicles can and do lead to dangerous situations.
Sun was lucky enough to not get in any accidents, but evidence shows that starting from 2018 to 2023 the accidents with lao tou le have caused the death of 18,000 people and have resulted in 186,000 people getting injured. After Beijing has completely banned lao tou le from going on roads, many other Chinese cities have started to regulate them too. Without regulations, the lao tou le isn’t just a symbol of accessibility for “elderly joy” but a growing public safety concern. Over time there will be a more balanced solution for vehicles like the lao tou le such as stricter rules regarding licensing requirements and improving safety.
