They’re sometimes called “pedelecs” or “pedal assist” bicycles because in Europe the boost from the motor only kicks in if you pedal in the U.S., most e-bicycles also come equipped with a throttle to turn on the motor without any pedaling required. These are not mopeds or motorcycles, but bicycles that can be pedaled with or without an assist from an electric motor. “We’re trying to change a paradigm.” There are reasons to believe that the e-bicycle industry may be able to do just that.īefore explaining why, let’s make clear what we mean by an electric bicycle. “Traditionally, people don’t use bikes for transportation,” says Larry Pizzi, the president of Currie Technologies, a leading e-bicyle manufacturer based in Simi Valley, California. Only if electric bicycles replace cars will their environmental benefits materialize - and that’s the goal, say bike makers.Īn Aurora, produced by the Boston-based start-up, Evelo Electric Bicycles. Yet if electric bikes end up replacing human-powered bikes, or if they are used only for exercise or fun, they could well add to pollution because they consume electricity, much of which comes from burning fossil fuels. “We don’t want to wean people from bicycles,” says Boris Mordkovich, Evelo’s founder, who previously worked at car-sharing company RelayRides. Evelo, a Boston-based startup, recently launched a 30-day electric bike challenge, asking people to give up their car keys and blog about using their electric bikes. In Europe and China, most electric bicycles are sold to commuters, although it’s not clear whether they are replacing conventional bikes, mopeds, or cars.Į-bicycle makers eagerly market themselves as “green.” Dashboards on e-bicycles sold under the Polaris brand and made by a Miami-based company called EVantage include a “carbon footprint savings” function to calculate how many pounds of CO2 are saved by using the bicycle in place of a gasoline-powered car. says e-bicycles will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, and traffic congestion, while enabling Americans, two-third of whom are obese or overweight, to become more active. Dashboards on some electric bicycles include a ‘carbon footprint savings’ function.Īll of which raises a question: Can electric bicycles help solve big environmental problems? The industry - which is making a push to expand its sales in the U.S. By comparison, about 120,000 electric cars were sold worldwide. E-bicycles are popular in Europe, too, selling about 380,000 a year in Germany and 175,000 in the Netherlands in 2012. An estimated 29.3 million e-bicycles were sold in 2012, with perhaps 90 percent of those selling in China, which has more electric bikes than cars on its roads. Globally, electric bicycles outsell electric cars by a wide margin. About 53,000 electric bicycles were sold, according to Dave Hurst, an analyst with Navigant Research who tracks the industry. Yet Americans bought as many electric bicycles as they did electric cars last year. The latter are electric bicycles, and they attract neither. They benefit from a lot of media attention and generous government subsidies, including a $7,500 tax credit for buyers in the United States. The first three are, of course, electric cars. But what about Evelo, the eZip Trailz, and the Faraday Porteur? Most Americans know about Tesla, the Chevy Volt, and the Nissan Leaf.
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