Tuc tucs fleets to hit British streets: "Marketed as the green way to get about town, a fleet of gas-powered tuc tucs took to the streets of Brighton this week, with more set to follow in other British cities.

An ubiquitous feature of many Far Eastern cities, this is the first time the motorised rickshaws will be seen plying their trade outside of Asia, according to the company which will be operating them, TucTuc Ltd.

The 12 vehicles - each with a unique paint job from a patriotic Union Jack to a Burberry-bedecked 'Chavrolet' - run on compressed natural gas (CNG) and the operators will be opening their filling station, situated in Brighton Marina, to the public.

While still a fossil fuel, burning CNG emits less pollutants than a traditional petrol engine.

Dominic Ponniah, executive director of TucTuc Ltd told edie: 'The emissions are really low. There is no lead output, an 80% reduction in emissions of carbon monoxide and CO2 is down 40%.

'They are also cheaper and more efficient to run.'

While still a long way from a new form of zero-emissions public transport, the tuc tucs are a step in the right direction.

Mr Ponniah acknowledged there was still room to bring down pollutants, by using electric engines and running his fleet on electricity from renewable sources.

'We import the vehicles from India and the electric-powered ones are not commercially available yet,' he said.

'They do exist, but are in the development stage and as we are running a public transport service we need to know our vehicles are reliable.

'We want to convert our fleet to electric at some point but need to wait until there is something more than a prototype and the CNG vehicles are tried and tested.'

Mr Ponniah is al"