China's New Craze: E-bikes

lawrencekhoo writes "I was in Shanghai recently, and found to my surprise that bicycle crazy China is now electric bicycle crazy. Electric bikes were everywhere, and outnumbered normal bikes on the road. You could even buy them in the department stores. Basic models sell for about 1200 Yuan (about US$150), and more elaborate scooter-like models for up to 5000 Yuan. Apparently, this craze has been building up for a few years. Something like it is even happening in parts of the US. According to one user, electric bikes are popular because they're cheap, and can take you all around town on one charge. Who would have guessed that China would lead the way in green transportation?"

Comments

Who woulda thunk it?

[BorkBorkBork6000]

Of course China is paving the way for green transportation. Having enormous populations in congested cities with low average incomes is a great motivation to produce cheap transportation.

Re:Who woulda thunk it?

[glenalec]

Point one - China is also the world leader in solar energy. (As an Australian, I hang my head in shame).

Point two - point one notwithstanding, China gets most of its eletrical power ATM off brown-coal (very high sulfur content) which is why in Beijing you really can feel the air burning the the inside of your nostrils on a bad day.

On the local (ie Chinese) news last night, big stories on several chanels about China's eletrical power shortage, with factories having to only run night shifts, cancel big orders and subsequently lay off workers because they don't have the power to operate their machinery. I don't have exact figures at hand, but I believe well over half the population is yet to be connected to the grid.

Chinese diet is becoming westernised and obesity is starting to become common in the population.

A human-powered bicycle starts to look better again. But mainland Chinese are very physical-effort adverse as breaking a sweat is considered 'workerish'. Really! (This is, of course, a gross generalisation and all of my own Chinese friends here are exceptions).

And all that hard breathing of Beijing (or Shanghai, or any city, really) air probably does more health damage than two packs a day. I doubt it is coincidence that major respitary illnesses come out of this part of the world mostly, what with the pollution, the dense population and everyone spitting like lamas everywhere!

My unit leader was saying the other day that when he was a boy there was spring and autumn (fall) in this region but there isn't anymore. And if you can see Venus on a 'clear' night, you are going well!

A bit ecclectic above, sorry, I'm in a rush to catch the university bus into the city for weekend grocery shopping.

Re:Who woulda thunk it?

[Mr. Slippery]

"Green", of course, is best achieved when humans live is as much poverty as you think you can smuggle past your audience, labeled as noble sacrifice if need be

Bullshit. Poverty is bad for the environment, since it is a strong inducement to make choices that are cheap in the short-term but expensive in the long run.

No, conspicuous consumption is not green. But being against the waste of resources, especially in pursuit of empty promises of happiness by owning more stuff, doesn't make one in favor of poverty and suffering - any more than being against overeating makes one in favor of starvation.

Re:Who woulda thunk it?

[gujo-odori]

There is nothing insightful about that post, it's just ignorant.

I lived in SE Asia, and I can tell you that the first thing that happens when people start going from poverty to prosperity is they start buying cars and scooters and things. The streets of Ho Chi Minh City are so choked with scooter traffic that if I had been riding a bicycle instead of a scooter myself, I probably would have been overcome by the exhaust fumes and collapsed (and no, I am not kidding).

China, as you may have noticed, is becoming fairly prosperous. Now, people are going to buy faster, more comfortable modes of transportation than bicycles. Which would you rather have them buy? Electric-assist bicycles, which are still pretty green and whose batteries can be recycled (and I'm sure they are; a lot of stuff from the G-7 gets sent to China for recycling, so they have a big recycling industry already in place), or would you rather have them buy a car or scooter and get around with an internal combustion engine driving a vehicle with a lot more parts in it?

You sound like a typical radical environmentalist: calling a good thing for the environment worthless because it's not perfect. By the way, do you use a vehicle with an internal combustion engine yourself? If you do, then you're also a hypocrite for criticizing China for not being perfectly green while they are still greener than you are.

You and the people who modded you insightful both need to get a tighter grasp on your clue before it all slips away.

It's not that hard to assume...

[CoconutFoobar]

Unlike most places in the US, many Chinese cities do not have streets made for large amounts of vehicular traffic, so bicycles have become important to them. Then, when you consider the cost of gasoline compared to the average Chinese person's salary, what's so bad about electric bikes? Besides, in a country of a billion people, if only 10% of people use this technology, that's more electric bikes sold than all the cars sold in the US. (Plus no required age to use one).

Stigma

[mphase]

When I first came across this technology years ago I wondered why it didn't seem to very popular. I soon realized that here in America nobody would ride one of these because of the social implications. Your either such a lazy fat bastard that you need a motor on your bike or your too weak and pathetic to just ride a normal bike or your a broke looser who can't afford a motorcycle or car. Who is gonna ride even a good electric bike (which even now there are few of) with these sort of implications attached.

Re:Green Transportation

[Poeir]

Oh, Mother Nature needs a favor? Well, maybe she should have thought of that when she was besetting us with droughts and floods and poison monkeys! Nature started the fight for survival and now she wants to quit because she's losing? Well, I say hard cheese!

Re:Language at the site

[txviking]

China was leading the green revolution for a long time .... With a lot of traditional bycicles....

Re:Here ya go

[adamfranco]

As an avid cyclist, I couldn't agree more. Me on a 17lb road bike can cruise at 17mph for long distances or 25mph for short distances/passing cars (really fun in my congested little town). Plus, I get good exersize while commuting.

That said, for those not young, not in good physical shape, or just lazy, the electric bike would be great. It would also be good for those who don't work for bike-friendly employers since you can arrive at work without being all sweaty and needing to change.

On another bicycle note, I recently came accross this great short essay entitled, "In Praise of the Bicycle".

Excerpts:
...Man on his feet is thermodynamically more efficient than any motorized vehicle and most animals. For his weight, he performs more work in locomotion than rats or oxen, less than horses or sturgeon.

...The bicycle is the perfect transducer to match man's metabolic energy to the impedance of locomotion. Equipped with this tool, man outstrips the efficiency of not only all machines but all other animals as well.

Its a nice read if you like cycling, commuting via bike, or are stuffed in your car in rush-hour traffic.

I then looked up the stats for the 2003 Tour and Lance Armstrong's winning finish of the 2129.4 mile race in 83h41'12" gives him an incredible average speed of 25.45miles/hour.

While a thoroughbred can run a mile averaging 40mph, a long distance speed record for the Karbarda breed or horses (the only one I could find data on) is 50km at 18.5 mph. Its pretty safe to say that attempting to ride a horse or just entering any animal in the Tour would kill it in a
matter of days if not less.

Go bicycles!

In my opinion, anything that gets people out of their SUVs is a good thing for the world and these things are much better than nothing.