2026-10-28
On September 25, 2026, FUNTI welcomed a visiting client from Iran at its headquarters and manufacturing base in Taizhou, Zhejiang, China. The visit combined a hands-on test ride, a full model walkthrough in the showroom, and detailed commercial discussion around the two models the client is evaluating for the Iranian market: the MOUCCA flagship and the MINO compact electric scooter.
The visit opened on the test area rather than in the meeting room. The client rode a cross-style electric motorcycle through a sequence of standing starts, low-speed manoeuvres and open-yard runs — the pattern a distributor uses to judge whether a platform will hold up in daily use rather than on a specification sheet.
The points that drew attention were the ones that matter in traffic: immediate torque from a standstill, a low centre of gravity that keeps the bike planted in slow riding, and suspension behaviour over uneven surfaces. A motorcycle that feels heavy at walking pace is difficult to sell in dense city traffic, no matter what its top speed reads.
"Iran is a market where the economics of running a two-wheeler are changing, and buyers there ask sharper questions about battery durability, spare parts and service intervals than almost anywhere else we work. That is a good sign — it means they intend to build a real business on the product." — FUNTI Export Sales Department
In the showroom, the client spent the most time with the MOUCCA. As FUNTI's flagship model, it runs a dual 72V40Ah lithium battery platform — 5.76 kWh in total — driving a 5 kW rated / 9.5 kW peak side-drive motor, with a top speed of 100 km/h and a range of up to 200 km on the twin-pack configuration. Front and rear disc brakes with ABS are standard, and the instrument cluster is a TFT display with CarPlay. The packs are rated IP67.
The dual-pack architecture is not only a range play. It gives fleet operators the option of splitting charging across shifts, and it keeps one pack as a fallback rather than a single point of failure. For a market where a scooter is a working asset rather than a weekend purchase, that redundancy is a commercial feature, not a technical footnote.
The second model on the client's list, the MINO, takes the opposite approach. It is a compact scooter built for utility work: a 72V40Ah pack feeding a 1.5 kW rated / 4 kW peak hub motor, 60 km/h top speed, 100 km range and a 150 kg maximum load on 12-inch wheels. Charging takes about four hours on the standard 72V10A charger, and the bike offers Eco, Sport and reverse modes with remote start.
Light, mechanically simple and inexpensive to run, MINO targets the last-mile delivery fleets that are the earliest adopters of electric two-wheelers in almost every emerging market — including Iran, where courier and food-delivery volumes have grown faster than the roads they run on.
| Model | Positioning | Key Specs | Typical Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| MOUCCA | Flagship | 72V40Ah × 2 (5.76 kWh), 5/9.5 kW, 100 km/h, up to 200 km, ABS, TFT + CarPlay | Long-distance commuters, premium retail |
| MINO | Compact Utility | 72V40Ah, 1.5/4 kW, 60 km/h, 100 km, 150 kg load, 12" wheels | Last-mile delivery fleets, daily city transport |
Iran's case for electrification does not rest on subsidy programmes aimed at electric vehicles. It rests on the cost of petrol. Private cars in Iran are allocated deeply subsidised fuel in monthly tiers — a first block at roughly 1,500 toman per litre and a second at roughly 3,000 toman per litre. The third, unsubsidised tier was doubled from 5,000 to 10,000 toman per litre, and the government has indicated the tiered structure will be reviewed on a quarterly basis.
The scale of the gap explains the direction of travel: Iranian officials have put the true import cost of petrol at above 70,000 toman per litre. As that gap is closed tier by tier, the running-cost advantage of an electric two-wheeler widens — not because of a new incentive, but because the alternative gets more expensive.
There is also a road-access dimension. Tehran has begun issuing distinct green and blue plates for electric and hybrid vehicles, which bring easier passage or exemption on air-pollution restriction days and a faster registration process — a meaningful advantage in a city where traffic restrictions are a routine fact of working life. Air quality policy, not consumer fashion, is what pulled electric two-wheelers onto the agenda.
On the supply side, China is already Iran's dominant source of imported two-wheelers: of the country's motorcycle and bicycle imports in 2024, Chinese-origin goods accounted for roughly USD 166 million, about 48% of the value — far ahead of the next suppliers. Iranian buyers are therefore not being introduced to Chinese electric two-wheelers for the first time; they are choosing among them.
The constraints are equally concrete, and they shaped the discussion in Taizhou. Charging coverage outside the main cities is still thin. Electric motorcycles require registration and plates, so documentation support matters from day one. And the practical gate for any Iranian transaction is not the product but settlement: how the invoice is paid across the border is a commercial engineering problem in its own right, and it is normally solved before the first container, not after.
Most emerging markets adopt electric two-wheelers first through delivery fleets, because a courier measures cost per kilometre and nothing else. Iran fits that pattern but adds a second driver: a subsidised petrol price that is being deliberately unwound in stages. That combination produces a market where demand is currently modest but the direction is unusually unambiguous — and where the winners will be decided by whoever is already positioned before the running-cost crossover arrives. The practical requirements are unglamorous: a compact utility platform that survives daily abuse, a flagship that can justify its price against a cheap litre of petrol, spare parts that arrive, and a payment route that clears. FUNTI's MOUCCA and MINO map onto the two ends of exactly that demand.
FUNTI is a manufacturer of electric motorcycles based in Taizhou, Zhejiang, China, with an annual production capacity of 100,000 units. The company's product line spans entry-level commuters to high-performance flagship models, exported to markets across Asia, Europe, South America, Africa and the Middle East.
FUNTI specialises in OEM/ODM partnerships, offering customised configurations including battery options, motor specifications, regional homologation support and branding solutions for international distributors. For Iran and the wider region, this includes configuration review against local climatic and market requirements, documentation support for registration, and after-sales material prepared for distributor service teams.
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