Electric Bikes Won Over China. Is the U.S. Next?
The e-bike situation in China is very different from the US. These are people who are moving UP from human-powered bikes, or walking, to their first vehicle -- not buying them so that they can leave their car at home and feel the wind in their hair. Here&#x27;s a photo of a very typical Chinese e-bike: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;image.made-in-china.com&#x2F;2f0j00zsrEyYQIYOqo&#x2F;Chinese-Electric-Scooter-for-Men-and-Women.jpg" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;image.made-in-china.com&#x2F;2f0j00zsrEyYQIYOqo&#x2F;Chinese-El...</a><p>As you can see, it has a second seat in the back for a passenger, and is built much more like a very lightweight motorscooter than a bike. The batteries are typically lead-acid, not lithium, so they are big and heavy, and probably don&#x27;t give all that much range. I&#x27;m curious how people charge and store these vehicles, since most people in Chinese cities live in multi-story dwellings -- I guess they must lug the batteries upstairs with them at night?<p>The real reason these work in China is that in most of the cities I have been in, they make up 30 to 40 percent of the traffic on the streets at any given time, and so they become a force to be reckoned with in terms of traffic flow. That makes a HUGE difference in terms of rider safety, especially when compared with the US where drivers are often confused or surprised when they encounter a single cyclist mixing it up with eight lanes of car traffic moving along at 45 mph.<p>I think it&#x27;s really admirable that China has been able to get a sizeable fraction of the population riding these silent, lightweight e-bikes, instead of polluting, noisy motorscooters or big, inefficient cars. However, I really question whether this model would ever fly in the USA.