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Electric Bikes Won Over China. Is the US Next? (bloomberg.com)
Sales of electric-bike is growing in many parts of the world. Asia-Pacific region, for instance, is estimated to see 32.8M of them sell this year, and 1.6m of e-bikes are expected to be sold in Western Europe by the end of this year. In China, in particular, the ban on motorcyle has lead to massive e-bike adoption. Over the years we've seen many companies such as BG and Pedego dish out models after models, offering bikes ranging from elegant folding versions to flat-tire variants. Despite all the growth elsewhere in the world, North America and Latin America are estimated to see less than 250,000 inventories move this year. But going forward, the number is likely to see a major growth. From a Bloomberg article: Electrics "finally have legs to be able to take off in the U.S.," because cyclists are feeling safer on the roads, battery and motor technology is improving, and retail prices are dropping, says Todd Grant, president of the National Bicycle Dealers Association. However, e-bikes have been banned in some U.S. cities because of safety concerns. [...] The U.S. market could develop "way faster" than Europe's did, says Claus Fleischer, who heads Bosch's e-bike division. The German multinational began selling motors and batteries for electric bikes in 2011 and now supplies more than 60 brands, primarily in Europe. It opened a subsidiary in Irvine, Calif., in 2014 and is sponsoring e-bike expos across the U.S., including one in Portland, Ore., that ran for three days in late May.
We run those bastards over. Electric bike freaks, same people that steal shopping carts.
helped. a lot.
John Forester's cult of Vehicular Cycling. Cycling in the US has been crippled for decades by a delusional group of ideologues who believe bicycles belong in the middle of regular motor vehicle lanes, even on 50mph state highways, and who will actively seek to prevent dedicated bicycle facilities from being built if it means people will ride in ways they disapprove of.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
Plus streets are for cars, silly.
I own a bicycle and have taken trips a half dozen times on the city streets. If I lived with an area with less hills it may be less of a problem but in southern California, we have plenty of hills. Combine that with traffic that isn't going to worry about you and it can be quite scary riding a bicycle.
As far as a motorcycle on the free goes; I like the idea but the accidents I've seen involving motorcycles almost always go poorly for the cyclist and never the car. Something about the rules of physics comes into play here.
Making it electrical won't change things on a practical level in the least. Americans love their gas guzzlers and gas is under $3 in California for the rest of the day and under $2 in many states. No one cares about conserving something so cheap.
I predict this will take off as well as motorcycles in general have taken off. That's the most optimistical outlook.
... the much better trend for the US would be an increased use of non-electric, traditional bicycles.
"because cyclists are feeling safer on the roads"... they shouldn't or else they're just fooling themselves. In the US in general, people driving cars/trucks don't like cyclists.
the same reason no bikes ever "win over" north america
On one hand, I'd like to see them become a lot more popular here, because I'd like to get some parts to convert my mountain bike to an electric human hybrid, and I'd like to get them cheap. On the other hand, I don't really want more cyclists on the road. I want them to have someplace to ride, but I don't want it to be the same place I'm driving. So I sure hope not.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Some reasons: Americans have a pathological hate for cyclists. They think that roads are built for cars and not transport in general, and all American drivers think they own the road they drive on. To many Americans, burning gas and spewing fumes is a merit, while being efficient or conservative is usually frowned upon and considered un-American or "for poor people". The more miles and gallons you can brag about, the more and the better you are.
The culture also has a more difficult time accepting e-bikes because they are not "cool", and that's a big factor. Which is a bit funny considering how many of them drive in permobils or electric scooters when they do their shopping.
It won't happen quickly, because oil and therefore gasoline is still too cheap. Also, the rich weekend warriors jock types mock anyone using electric bicycles. There's a social stigma.
Hopefully we can get more bicycle traffic, of any kind. There are huge numbers of dedicated cycling lanes around here which have taken the place of traffic lanes. Auto congestion is now much higher and it's very rare to see even a single person use them.
Professional cycling races.
Pretending this is my office full of bitter coworkers..
A halfway decent bike is already grossly overpriced, often costing well over $1000. Electric bikes are even worse.
Having used eBikes for a daily commute in China I think they are a great technology, practical and affordable. The average price for an eBike was about USD $400 when I lived there a couple of years ago. Current eBikes outside of China appear to be grossly over priced. There are a few changes need if they wish to sell outside of China. The build quality needs to improve, quite doable. The speed restrictions need removed, typically 35kph which is too slow in cities outside China, 55kph (35mph) should make them able to mix with cars safely in cites. They currently have 500W motors which would probably need boosted to 750W-1KW for flat cites and 2-3KW for hilly cities.
I'm skeptical that electric-powered bikes will become very popular in the US. They're fairly similar in riding qualities (lightweight, easy to handle) and licensing requirements (pretty much none) to a 50cc motorscooter, and those have failed to take off, despite being widely available in the same price range for years. I've been a day-to-day scooterist for seven years, but I don't have a lot of company out there. Especially in the north, where they're a three-season vehicle (or one-season, for the less dedicated), they aren't seen as a viable substitute for a car. Even with 100mpg engines that cost almost nothing to fuel, the ability to park them almost anywhere, and a lot of other appealing features, most consumers just don't seem interested (which is too bad for them, because unless the roads are wet or icy, I'd much rather ride than sit in a car).
An e-bike also suffers from being neither fish nor fowl. A 20mph bike is too slow to keep up with traffic in a motor-vehicle lane, but too fast to fit in with any human-powered traffic in a bicycle lane. I've ridden a 50cc scooter (mine was capable of 40mph) in 45mph zones, and believe me: motorists don't like you when you go under the speed limit in a motorized-vehicle lane. They'll eat a 20mph e-bike alive, even in a 25mph zone. But if that e-bike takes the bike lane (which isn't legal in many places), it will quickly overtake regular bicyclists, whom it won't be able to safely pass because bike lanes aren't designed for that. Dedicated lanes for motor-powered two-wheelers might help as an option for e-bikes and scooters (and motorcyclists who aren't in a hurry), but I don't see that happening until they become popular... ye olde Catch 22.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
I went to Shanghai and Hangzhou about 18 months ago, and saw this stuff for myself. The newly-built portions of these Chinese cities (ie the ones that used to be open fields 20 years ago or razed slums) have their nice and shiny new roads layed out as follows:
1. Storefronts
2. A portion of the sidewalk taken up by space for bikes and electric scooters, with power strips provided by shopkeepers for their customers
3. Rest of the (wide) sidewalk
4. Dedicated bike+electric scooter lane, maybe 6-8 feet wide
5. Small median (~1-2 feet, bigger for bus stops)
6. Traffic lanes, 4 or more lanes total, sometimes in groups of two or three, sometimes with a set of reversible lanes, sometimes dedicated bus lanes.
5 downto 1 in reverse order on the other side.
At almost all intersections, the bike lanes have separate traffic signals (usually overlapping with pedestrian walk signals), and sometime the bike lanes have separate left turn signals which coincide with exclusive left turn signals for the car lanes. If I remember right, the car left and right turn lanes can be either on the interior or exterior of the road and there are signs to indicate which set of lanes allow you to turn which way at the upcoming intersection. This is to deconflict turning vehicles from bikes/pedestrians going straight at the outside of the road.
Overall, it was a pretty good system. But (especially in Shanghai) you could tell that half the people on the road didn't have an f'ing clue of how to operate a vehicle in traffic, and one time when I was riding a bus, a woman cut of the bus changing from one set of lanes to another (in a way that just wouldn't happen here) and got her rear tail light knocked out.
The other thing is that this all takes space. You couldn't do it unless you were building from scratch or were willing to knock down large numbers of existing buildings. But the Chinese had to do it this way because maybe only half of their people can afford to own cars, and even fewer back when this was built 20 years ago. So the streets were layed out to accomodate an equal number of people on bicycles and buses/motor vehicles. That's a ready market for electric scooters.
I've priced various electric bikes. They allow you to go slightly faster than you could on a good bike if you were in good shape, for slightly longer, and (most importantly reduce the annoyance of having to ride uphill or to a stop every few dozen feet).
HOWEVER: Until the electric bike gets to be cheaper than a decent, used motorcycle, there's no way in fucking hell I'm buying one. Three thousand to six thousand bucks for a fucking bicycle? Are you goddmaned fucking shitting me?
An '06 Kawasaki Ninja 250 costs what? And you want how much for that fucking bicycle?
Ah hahahahhahahahahh FUCK YOU.
Lower that price a WAYS, and we'll talk. More than a grand is fucking ridiculous. (I know the bike part is going to cost several hundred bucks unless it's a cheap department store piece of unridable fucking garbage, but the reality is I can ride a motorcycle for less than that bike costs, unless we're talking a Goldwing, or some shit like that.
That reminds me... Are there any good Goldwings or other cruising bikes for sale near me on eBay?
I use my e-bike for daily commuting. It is a low powered unit with a 350W geared hub motor. No wind cruse, under power is about 17mph, pedaling lightly gets me to about 20mph (after all, I am on my way to work, I have no intention of working hard to get there). Where the motor comes in handy is in shopping runs. When I have the bike and trailer loaded down heavy.
The other place the motor makes a real difference is in a headwind. I am in South West Kansas, we have both wind and winter.
Overall, this lifestyle saves me quite a bit of money. If I need to go a long distance I fly; even if I had a car, it is still cheaper to fly for long distances. If I need to go an intermediate distance I just rent a car.
I now a lot of people will try to sputter some reason that it can't work; but for me it does.
Bike theft is one of the fastest growing crimes here in Europe. It will definitely get worse still a few years from now when the average bike is a $1500 e-bike instead of a $150 regular bike. There is an inherent problem with a vehicle that is both expensive enough to be worth stealing and lightweight enough that a person can just pick it up and walk away with it.
And not cars.
The day that E-bikes take over in the US is the day *after* the bicycle infrastructure get so good, the distances so short, and the attitudes so much improved that everyone would be riding bicycles. This is unlikely. And if, somehow it did happen, it would actually be kind of sad. All that work to overhaul transportation, and Americans would still rather sit on their ass and coast rather than pedal.
I have experimented with cycling to work (usually use a motorcycle). At no place I have ever worked have there been showers usable for the transition from cyclist to acceptable office occupant, and I really must have those facilities.
The e-bikes are too silent. This makes them a hazard when they overtake cyclists and pedestrians. Either require them to make a constant sound so you know they are approaching or give us back our guns. Right now e-bikes are just a legal way to murder people.
Seen it twice in the last month. No earpiece.
they get upwards of 70 to 80 MPG and run at 65 MPH
a little yamaha-XT250 or Suzuki-DR200 are nice little bikes,
Huh? With every driver now staring at their phone instead of watching the road, I find it hard to agree with this. Distracted drivers are deadly for cyclists. I wish e-bikes made some noise. Navigating streets in Shenzhen last summer, you had to constantly watch out for e-bikes whizzing by from every direction.
E-bikes that can exceed 20 mph need to be limited to cyclists who can pass a motorcycle license exam. At 35 mph an e-bike with its smaller tire-to-road surface area and poorer braking behavior is more dangerous than a motorcycle and requires more skill in the instantaneous risk assessment that is critical to safe driving of any vehicle. E-bikes in traffic lanes at faster than pedaling speeds are not only a threat to their riders, they are a hazard to all other drivers on the road.
...do Americans make such a big deal over something as simple, easy, and routine as riding a bike? Go anywhere else in the developed world (and a lot of developing countries too) and you'll see that a lot of people use bikes to get around. Really, it's not a big deal.
You posted as AC, so that only narrows the search to Earth and near-Earth orbit. Probably not too many in orbit, since they're incredibly heavy, and Antarctica doesn't have much infrastructure, but that still leaves at least 20% of the planet.
Biking in the USA? That's socialist pinko communist bullshit. Every single American person (child and adult) must have at minimum one car each.
The one I saw was an high-end BMW http://www.bmwmotorcycle.com/c...
At 15000€ it's out of reach and it's also too big but if someone manage to do something smaller with lesser top speed it could be great.
Scooters are for inner city so autonomy shouldn't be an issue also it could resolve the two main problems with scooters nowadays: noise and air pollution.
Well the 20mph limit is a regional thing but yes it is relevant. We use a 300W limit so most existing Chinese eBike would be treated as motorcycles here anyway but at 20mph they have all the same risks that bicycle suffer from with not being able to join the other faster traffic. In many countries you could ride them with a car licence. The eBikes I rode had fat scooter tires and disk brakes were becoming common. Basically my argument is they should be up spec'd to match a typical 50cc scooter which is an ideal transport option in a city. The eBike can have all the advantages of a 50cc scooter without the high cost and all the hassles of gas stations and complicated maintenance etc.
You can buy conversion kits on ebay for under $200 and stick one on a $50 craigslist bike.
More electric skate boards see here.
Ha ha
Its going to be difficult to sell them in the US for practical usage. Most people travel miles on your average commute, and fighting traffic traveling 50mph or more on a bike that is limited to 20 is bound to result in some tense moments. There may be a few situations where they'll work, such as inner city commuting and some rural areas with paved roads. But unless they can get them up to highway speeds while keeping the costs down they're going to find it very hard to attract a vast majority of US commuters.
Throw yourself off of a bike at 35mph and tell me how safe it is.
About as safe as falling off at 20mph and landing under a car doing 35mph? I watched a good friend of mine be killed by a car, she was riding at less than 5kph when the car drove over her. What's your point? I have been riding motorcycles since 1974 and all those years I have never felt the desire or need to throw my self off. My normal commute is on a VTR1000, 100KW, top speed 280kph. When commuting I do so at the same speed as the traffic when it is moving, and about 20kph when passing stationary traffic. In China they have physically separate lanes for the eBikes so the 35kph is fine as there is no cars to deal with. With most western cities there are a few token bike lanes but much of the time you share with cars so matching their speed helps. I would not recommend 100KW for commuting, but I would recommend enough power to say safe in the realities of typical cites.
If you are really worried about a safe commute I think telecommuting might be your best option.
In the warmer states an e-bike could be used all year round. In colder states it will take a very hardy and young person to use an e-bike in cold weather. Just as you see very few motorcycles when it's really cold you will see very few e-bikes. In the south we see people demonstrating enclosed bikes that go quite fast without so much effort but in our hot climates an enclosed bicycle is a torture chamber worse than a sauna, most of the year. this has to seriously effect what people are willing to pay for e-bikes as those bikes will be sitting several months of a year, unused and will need a car or pickup truck for a backup. Theft of bicycles has always been a problem and is largely ignored by police departments. for that to end we will need strong punishments frequently applied for those that steal bicycles or expensive parts from bicycles. in my state a car thief will almost never go to prison unless he has several prior convictions. i wonder how many $1,400 dollar e-bikes he would have to get caught stealing to actually be put in prison at all under our current system. We just might see the same type of conflict that is brewing with private drones. If far more people want to fly drones than commercial aviation then wouldn't commercial aviation have to shut down or move to remote, drone free areas? As e-bikes become the dominant road vehicles won't cars take the second class position and be regulated in such a way that they do not offend e-bike riders? E-bikes just might have the potential to end auto production in the US. things are quickly changing.
I rode bicycles as my only means of transit for years. Beating the bus on a 15-mile commute to work was a goddamn badge of honor for a long time (sure, a straight shot with no stops pretty much guarantees you'll get there faster than the bus, but thinking about the number of people who'd bike anywhere in Texas in July adds something to it. There's a metal band called Texas in July 'cause that's brutal enough).
There's just no reason to get an electric bike right now.
They're a shitty medium between a bicycle and a motorcycle.
Here's what electric bikes cost:
http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/bikes/collections/electric-bikes/c/B507
3k-ish new. Trek is a good brand. My workhorse was a Trek. Other brands have about the same pricing for electric bikes.
And motorcycles:
http://powersports.honda.com/street/cruiser/shadow-line.aspx
The honda shadow is the workhorse of motorcycles. It has a reputation for requiring about as much maintenance as an anvil. 7k. This is brand new. I bough a used '03 shadow in november '15 for 2.2k. So far I've changed the oil. No idea what the used electric bike market looks like so I can't compare there. TBH I didn't bother to look into it.
So a motorcycle is 3k more.
It's also a viable vehicle.
It goes as much distance in a trip as you care to make it (My shadow takes a ~$5 fill up for ~100 miles)
It goes as fast as you want it to (speedo goes to 100, so does the bike. not that I'd know.... )
An e-bike is capped to 20mph in most states. My all time high on a bicycle's 38. 20mph is a decent cruising speed on a regular bike if you're in shape (if not, you'll get there). On an e-bike you probably won't ever beat that 20 thanks to the weight of the battery and shit, and you never get the satisfaction of muscle over machine. Be that as it may, you still get all the "oh it's 15 miles away? I'll be there in an hour" of not having a car.
An e-bike is a shitty medium between a bicycle and a motorcycle.
Do yourself a favor. Get a $200 bicycle on craigslist, a class M, and a Shadow, Virago, or another 750cc starter bike (also on craigslist).
All told you can get it done at 4K, and that's a liberal guess (really it's more like 2.2k for my bike, then 250 for the class m, then buy a jacket and helmet so as to not be that asshole on a ninja with sandals and a t-shirt and a backwards baseball cap). That's less than half the price of a reliable 10-year car and you're not getting the worst of both worlds like you would with an "e-bike".
Do yourself another one. Man up (or lady appropriate term) and push a bicycle with some fuckin muscle, don't get some half-ass excuse for a motorcycle that's also a half-ass excuse for a bike thanks to some extra weight.
The Germans are ahead in the curve. They have e-bikes and pedelecs. Pedelecs do have a battery which is only engaged and helpful if you push yourself on the pedals. Pedelecs wastly outnumber e-bikes. Max. speed 25 kmph is rarely attained.
Only one sentence in this post without a grammatical error
I actually first noticed this yeas ago when I was in Shenzhen: electric scooters/"bicycles" were everywhere. So much for thinking that China is unwilling to limit its pollution.
Further reading about the power charging infrastructure (or, lack thereof): http://designmind.frogdesign.com/2014/01/chinas-electric-bike-charging-cultures
Those kinds of speeds overlap with low end mopeds and motorcycles, which require compulsory basic training and a provisional driver's license, and motor insurance.
"However, e-bikes have been banned in some U.S. cities because of safety concerns."
I guess they prefer Harleys, where one of them accelerating at night wakes up 2500 people up.
The ones they use in China look more like light motorcycles than what Americans might think of as an e-Bike. It isn't a regular street bicycle with a motor strapped on the frame, it's a motorcycle frame with an electric engine.
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
E-bikes that can exceed 20 mph need to be limited to cyclists who can pass a motorcycle license exam.
They already are, in California. Although, frankly, 20 MPH is not that fast. A decent cyclist can exceed that already, especially on a downhill obviously but a fairly fit person can hit 25 MPH on flat ground and they're pedaling which affects balance. That's why California law no longer requires moped registration for motorized bicycles, like it used to.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
They aren't really designed as motorcycle replacements, they are just ordinary bikes with electric assist. Speed is controlled by pedalling, which is made almost effortless by the electric motor.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Three thousand to six thousand bucks for a fucking bicycle?
I know that these bikes exist and you are not exaggerating, but that's not the price they are paying on these bikes.
Taobao is a Chinese eBay, here is a search for electric bycicles. Have a look on what they have for less than 300USD (~2000CNY).
More than a grand really is fucking ridiculous, common Chinese people would not afford it. The problem in the US is that these bikes are being targeted at smugs. Sell bikes for $150 and decent scooters for $300 like in China and you'll see a lot of people buying just to give it a try.
Telecommuting is far and away the safest option, and best for the environment (unless, like me, you telecommute to a city 1000 miles away, then you end up on an airplane every month or so - not so great for the environment, but still safer than a daily 20 mile drive.)
If you're going to take your e-bike up to 35mph, just call it what it is: an underpowered motorcycle, and wear a real helmet and some protective clothes, or not, it's your brain to risk splattering on the pavement if you wish.
It's happening... Yes, the laws are a bit funky, but reasonable for little motor vehicles that you can't ride on non-motorized bike trails (though people do anyway and I haven't seen anyone complain) but aren't quite full motorcycles (but can almost be used that way).
I'm starting to see a fair number of these tooling around: http://www.radpowerbikes.com/p... (granted, I live near Seattle where they're based) and they're pretty much the sweet spot. I'd get one if I didn't live near at the confluence of so many non-motorized bike trails (all of the old rail and trolley trails are being converted to bike trails in all of the major metro areas I've ever lived).
In other areas and downtown Seattle, these things are popping up more often, though. Lots of couriers use them to make deliveries on downtown bike lanes, weaving comfortably through the gridlocked traffic and purring up and down the hills. It's also big enough to take an adult passenger, and I've seen a woman take a bike like this to the library with 3 toddlers in childseats.
750W (1HP) is the limit for these electric assist motors in most states, (WA actually allows 1kW before classifying it as a motorcycle). There's also a grey area where the motor assist should be limited to 20mph, but it's fine if you push it faster by pedaling/going downhill. These kind of motor systems can be bought direct from China for under $300 ... and then another $300 for a pack of Li-Po batteries, so you could convert any sturdy bike into your own pedelec. The best hack I've seen involved building a bike battery pack out of ~$100 of surplus laptop battery packs from ebay.
I'm glad this is taking off, I've always dreamed of building a little 3-wheel velomobile as a kid, and all this stuff is going to make it much more affordable. We already use our cheap normal utility bikes as a second car, and it would be neat to have some electric options in the fleet for certain errands or to entertain visitors.
Even big motorcycles are hard to see, nevermind a skinny little bike.
You aren't looking around enough.
I'm looking around just fine, it's the left-hand side of the Bell curve that's the problem. I commute via bicycle three days a week, by motorcycle two, and also own a car. In the winter (Jan-Mar) I usually take public transit. I'm fairly transportation agnostic.
The general advice to new motorcyclists is "assume that you are invisible". This goes to cyclists as well.
It is true that e-bikes are not designed as motorcycle replacements.
The rest of parent post is so wrong it is evident that the poster has no experience with e-bikes and has done no serious reading about their design, capabilities, and uses.
Yes, a good cyclist in training can easily pedal faster than 20 mph under many conditions, and racing cyclists often exceed 35 mph especially when working in a peloton.
But by the time a cyclist has reached the ability to pedal faster than 19 mph on the flat, he has gained enough experience, and probably enough judgment, to not be a threat to himself or others. E-bike riders, though, take a shortcut to speed and can get up to very risky speeds before they have the experience or judgment to know how to handle themselves. E-bikes are okay, but new e-bike riders need to be told that they are a danger to themselves and others until they have acquired bicycling experience.
Fanatical cyclists do not seem to understand that the bike paths themselves are a problem. Here in Austin one of the local TV stations did a very nice presentation with good graphics on how the bike lanes choked down the width of vehicle traffic lanes. Even when there are no bikes present! The result is that public buses and parked cars get their side mirrors and Wi-Fi antennas clipped. Replacing a side mirror on a bus is expensive, not that
the side mirror on a vehicle is cheap. The smaller, tighter lanes squeeze wider vehicles over the center line in residential areas. I know that cyclist do not care about this sort of thing, after all, they are far more important, say, garbage trucks, delivery vehicles etc.
In certain parts of the US, such as Austin, Texas, there are long periods where the weather is "flash flooding" or the temperatures are well over 25C. This does not happen very often in northern Europe.
Here in North America, bicycle culture looks down on those who ride electric bicycles and they're typically only ridden by overweight or elderly people who need extra help. An electric motor makes you look sort of pathetic and often times will result in you being talked down to by other cyclists, pedestrians, and cars.
"Hey fat ass, try eating less and riding a real bicycle"
Also almost everyone who rides a bike here does so because of "moral reason x" or to get exercise-- these bikes appeal to neither. The only reason sales have been so high in China, is as everyone else says because "the fucking ban on motorcycles."
Don't post ads like this to Slashdot and call it news, this is fucking SPAM.
No, none of that is required here, just a car license. The actual requirements will vary from country to country. If you want to be pedantic you could argue that all those requirements should apply to bicycles.
Firstly the laws around bicycles and ebike are not the same in every country, state and city. Just because the law where you are restricts you in some way that does not make it true for people living elsewhere. The legal/practical viability of ebikes is going to vary from place to place.
Secondly many posters are thinking of ebikes as only bicycles with a small motor added, which is the most common type in Western cities but most ebikes in China, which the original article refers to, do not have peddles, they are scooter styled. If you saw one in a western city you would likely assume that it was a gas power Vespa or similar, not an ebike. The reason the scooter format is more common that the bicycle style is the load carrying capacity, you can put you shopping on the deck in front of the seat and more in the compartment under the seat. Of course the load carrying capabilities do get a abused in China. Often saw four people on one and loads that were oversized. Watched one girl transporting a wardrobe fall off when the wardrobe, laid horizontally over the desk, dug into the ground on a corner.
"e-bike riders only risk their own lives"
I'd like to apply this to the driver's seat in all automobiles. Namely, remove all the driver seat air bags, and replace them with a gun that automatically shoots the driver in the event of an accident. I think we would see much safer driving.
Yes, I am a grumpy old cyclist. And by the way, I do pull over and let cars and trucks pass when I need to, did it three or four times today.