China is a big country with big cities and big roads. Imagine what it must feel like to know that the closest subway station or bus stop is 20-30 minutes away. Imagine getting in your car at 2 pm on a Thursday thinking that the traffic should be okay only to find that traffic definitely isn’t okay. Imagine taking a cab to the nearest supermarket because it would take 30 minutes to walk there.
Welcome to the life of over half the Chinese population .
Usually, when we talk about the last mile problem, we’re referring to connectivity or logistics, i.e. how does an ISP ensure efficient investments to few people? However, for transportation in China, it’s the last 6 kilometers that’s the real problem. That’s exactly the problem that Token Hu, co-founder and head of product at Niu (pronounced “new”), set out to solve.
“The goal we set for ourselves was to find the solution to the problem of city traffic. After a lot of research about the situation in China, US, and Europe, we don’t think electric cars can solve the problem. There are enough cars on the road already,” he said in an interview.
“We thought about the last mile problem when we first started thinking about the product, but when we were doing our research, we found it’s not only the last mile. Every day people travel to work, meetings, grab a coffee, or meet friends, the average distance is 3-6 kilometers. Everyone does about that distance. So we asked ourselves, what kind of vehicle can conveniently travel that distance?” Hu added.
