For all things bikes

What do you think of when I say China? Largest population, noodles, dragon year or the Great Wall of China? One interesting aspect that might not directly come to mind is that China is a giant user of electric bicycles...

An electric bicycle, or e-bike, is a simple bicycle with an electric motor attached to it, giving it the power to run like a scooter. In 1998, China had already 56,000 e-bikes and jumped to more than 21 million in 2008. In 2010, it had roughly 120 million e-bikes, compared to a total of 700,000 in the whole of Europe. According to the Time World, the country produces about four times more electric bicycles than cars. China is in fact the most important manufacturer of electric bicycles in the world.

This phenomenon was engendered by Chinese local government to respond to the boom in motor vehicles that reached China in the last decades. The massive influx of motor vehicles polluted its air dramatically but also caused many accidents and created big congestion zones. Chinese policy-makers thus decided to increase restriction on the use of motorcycles in many city centers, raised fees for gas-powered scooter licenses and introduced the e-bike to the country.

The new e-bikes were cheaper, licenses were not required to ride them, and all the latter factors combined made the Chinese people shift their 2-wheel love to the electrical bicycle. Faster and less tiring than bicycles, less dangerous than motorcycles and cheaper than cars- e-bikes became the star of transport modes for the larger part of the Chinese population.

But more importantly though, e-bikes are clean. According to analyst Frank Jamerson, China is ahead of many when it comes to clean technology and 'what's happening in China is sort of a clue to what the future will be.' Chinese policy has thus made China the world Mecca for electrical bicycles and a leader in the use of clean transport.

The only problem remaining is the battery - China needs better battery technology and better charging infrastructure to fully take advantage of its e-bike revolution.

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