On the Streets of China, Electric Bikes Are Swarming

[Knuckles]

On the Streets of China, Electric Bikes Are Swarming

"Last year Chinese bought about 90% of the 23 million e-bikes sold worldwide. Experts say that next regions to likely embrace e-bikes are Southeast Asia, where gas-powered scooters are popular, and India, where rising incomes mean personal transportation is starting to be in reach of hundreds of millions. Japan has seen steady annual sales of about 300,000 for several years, and in the cycle-crazy Netherlands e-bikes are beginning to take off. In the U.S., where bikes are still overwhelmingly used for recreation rather than transportation, e-bike sales are expected to break 200,000 this year, or about 1% of China's sales."

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1904334,00.html

 

[deronmoped]

Yeah, I can not understand why more people in the USA have not taken to E-bikes. I saw a couple riding some Bionx powered E-bikes the other day, but I only run into people like once every couple of months riding E-bikes. This is in San Diego too, where riding conditions are very favorable year round.

I'm betting it has, in large part, to do with the batteries (upkeep). I see people riding regular bikes around all the time with nearly flat tires. People that have a hard time keeping air in the tires, that may need topping up like once every few months, are going to never get around to charging the batteries after every ride.

Me, ever sense I started riding my Giant LaFree, I can not go back to a regular bike. I even favor the E-bike over riding my mopeds. I ended up only driving my cars now when I absolutely have to, no more recreation driving of my cars, the E-bike is so much more fun knowing it costs almost nothing.

Deron.

 

[swbluto]

Does anyone else hear an echo?