🚲⚡️E-bikes: The next big thing on two wheels

Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of riding a bike, as goes the quote attributed to John F. Kennedy—unless, of course, the bike helps you with the pedaling. All of the fun and freedom, substantially less of the effort. As countries like the US rethink their reliance on individual car ownership, bikes powered or assisted by electric motors—e-bikes, for short—are picking up speed. Consumers are snapping them up and venture capitalists are pumping cash into startups that promise they’ll make shared fleets part of the urban transit infrastructure. It may sound futuristic, but e-bikes are a surprisingly old technology. The first patents were filed in the 1890s, but it took a century for advances in battery technology to make them commercially viable, first in China, which is still home to the vast majority, then Europe, and now, slowly and steadily, in the United States. Let’s take a motor-assisted spin. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( Brought to you by [Quartz Obsession] E-bikes August 14, 2018 A new cycle --------------------------------------------------------------- Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of riding a bike, as goes the quote attributed to John F. Kennedy—unless, of course, the bike helps you with the pedaling. All of the fun and freedom, substantially less of the effort. As countries like the US rethink their reliance on individual car ownership, bikes powered or assisted by electric motors—e-bikes, for short—are picking up speed. Consumers are snapping them up and venture capitalists are pumping cash into startups that promise they’ll make shared fleets part of the urban transit infrastructure. It may sound futuristic, but e-bikes are a surprisingly old technology. The first patents were filed in the 1890s, but it took a century for advances in battery technology to make them commercially viable, first in China, which is still home to the vast majority, then Europe, and now, slowly and steadily, in the United States. Let’s take a motor-assisted spin. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann By the digits [36.8 million:]( Estimated e-bike sales in China in 2015 [40.1 million:]( Estimated total global e-bikes sales in 2015 [2 million:]( Estimated e-bike sales in Europe in 2015 [37%:]( Proportion of China’s lead-acid battery market devoted to e-bikes in 2011 [5,100 miles in 34 days:]( World Record for e-biking, set in the US in 2016 [91%:]( Proportion of North American e-bike owners who ride daily or weekly [$1,000–$6,000:]( Range of prices on Popular Mechanics’ best e-bikes list [0.1%:]( The fraction of energy consumed by an e-bike compared to a small electric car [10 volts:]( Size of the battery that powered the first patented e-bike, in 1895 Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch Explainer How it works --------------------------------------------------------------- There are [two main kinds of e-bikes](. Pedelecs, short for “pedal electric cycle,” are low-powered e-bikes that give an electrified boost when you pedal. Throttle-controlled bikes, on the other hand, don’t require any pedaling—they just go. Let’s talk about pedelecs. These electric-assist bikes have a few basic components: a motor to provide a boost, a torque sensor that measures how hard the rider is pedaling, a battery to provide the actual power, and a motor controller, which, you guessed it, controls the output to the motor. The key difference in many e-bikes is [where the motor is actually located](. It can sit directly on the front or rear wheel, or it can be on the frame toward the middle of the bike (a “mid-drive”), in which case the power moves through the transmission. The controls for the motor are usually mounted on the handlebars, for easy accessibility. In the US, pedelecs are allowed to travel up to 20 mph while using motor power (they can go faster, but it has to be just from human pedaling). Throttle-controlled e-bikes can travel up to 20 mph with motor power alone, per federal regulations. Brought to you by Hilton Honors If you’re obsessed with jazz, you’re not alone --------------------------------------------------------------- Born in New Orleans at the end of the 19th century, jazz has spread across the country and been embraced—and constantly reinvented—by a variety of cities.[Discover the best places to hear jazz live]( Charted DIY How to ride --------------------------------------------------------------- If you’re riding an e-bike in Europe or Japan, it’s probably a pedelec, says Edward Benjamin, founder and senior managing director of consulting firm eCycleElectric. Throttle-controlled bikes that don’t require the rider to pedal are popular in the US and China (you might have seen your local delivery guy zooming by on one). That could be changing in the US if e-bike startups get their way. Companies like Jump ([bought by Uber]( in April), Motivate ([bought by Lyft]( in July), and Lime are working to make shared electric-assist bikes available to more riders in the US. You can buy your own e-bike, but it will cost you. A nice consumer model can easily top $2,000. For infrequent riders, renting an e-bike can be much cheaper. For example, [Lime charges]( $1 to unlock one of its lime-green e-bikes and another $1 for every 10 minutes of riding. [Jump charges]( $2 for 30 minutes on one of its fire-engine red pedelecs. Reuters/Wolfgang Rattay Timeline [1895:]( Ohio inventor Ogden Bolton Jr. is granted US patent #552271A for an “electrical bicycle.” It features a battery suspended from the bike frame. [1897:]( Humber, a motorcycle company, creates an electric tandem bike. [1932:]( Electronics company Philips and bike company Simplex team up to create the [first]( commercial e-bike. [1991:]( The invention of a commercial, rechargeable lithium-ion battery provides the lightweight power that e-bikes need to take off. [1993:]( Yamaha builds the first mass-producible mid-drive e-bike. Also known as a crank-drive, this style of e-bike powers the bike via the chain drive, rather than sitting directly on the wheel. [2002:]( US Congress defines the low-speed electric bicycle as a “two- or three-wheeled vehicle with fully operable pedals and an electric motor of less than 750 watts.” The maximum speed allowed without pedaling is 20 mph. [2018:]( Startups like Lime and Jump deploy fleets of shared electric bicycles across US cities. Seeing the potential, ride-hail company Uber buys Jump and partners with Lime. Quotable “Everyone hates e-bikes.” — [Aaron Gordon, The Outline]( 💬 LET'S TALK! What’s your take on e-bikes? Let us know at [Obsession Obsessives on Reddit](. Be the first to join our new community and take us down a 🐰🕳 of your own! ([We’ve recently been discussing pigeon navigation tactics.]( Giphy Million-dollar question So how far will this e-bike thing really go? --------------------------------------------------------------- That’s the $200 million question if you go with [what Uber paid]( for shared dockless e-bike provider Jump. We’re still figuring out how to get people out of cars and into literally any other mode of transportation, but global sales data and early indicators in the US both point in a promising direction for e-bikes. Edward Benjamin of eCycleElectric says the e-bike market could hit 40 million units globally in 2019, and grow to 120 million units in the next decade. The bulk of that will come from China, which was selling 25 million e-bikes as of 2014, but Benjamin says China, Japan, Holland, and Germany are all trending toward 50% of bicycle sales being e-bikes. He thinks electric two-wheelers will get an additional boost from governments as they increase restrictions on gas motorcycles and scooters. In San Francisco, Uber says e-bike rides through Jump are [already displacing]( regular Uber trips. In a review of early Jump users, Uber said it saw bike trips, well, jump during weekday commuting hours, while Uber rides fell by 15%. Uber called it a “promising sign” that e-bikes could “alleviate congestion and reduce car trips.” 102-character fact The European Commission [is investigating Chinese manufacturers]( for flooding the market with super cheap e-bikes. Giphy Pop quiz Which of these is not a major e-bike manufacturer? SpeedaGepidaBenelliXiaomi Correct. Incorrect. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. Health spin Since pedal-assist bikes assist pedaling, is it still good exercise? [The early indications are yes]( University of Colorado-Boulder study showed benefits for previously sedentary subjects who rode at least 40 minutes three times a week, despite averaging a modest speed of 12 miles an hour. This one weird trick Why Japan pioneered the pedal-assist e-bike—and why China sells so many --------------------------------------------------------------- The first commercially successful pedelec e-bike was created by Yamaha in 1993. But the story actually starts in 1978, when Japan made riders of two-wheeled vehicles of at least 50cc (about as powerful as an inexpensive scooter) wear helmets. Riders switched to mopeds (generally speaking, less than 50cc and slower than 31 miles per hour). When moped riders were forced to wear helmets, sales for them slowed, and Yamaha saw a market vacuum. Hence the pedelec, which gives an “electronic assist” and tops out slower than a moped. That was good enough to open up a new category of vehicle—[“bicycle with auxiliary motor”]( passed muster. So why are the Chinese so dominant in e-bikes? The technology for pedelec bikes is sophisticated—the bike has to monitor the torque from the rider, communicate that to the motor, and continuously adjust. So they’re not cheap. The Chinese didn’t have the peculiarities of Japanese law to contend with, so there was a much bigger market for the more simple throttle-controlled bikes. Watch this! In this hair-raising video, stunt rider Chris Northover climbed up, down, and around the old Russian consulate in London on an electric trial bike. The shock of the new Pedal-assist pushback --------------------------------------------------------------- In New York City, e-bikes were [illegal to ride]( not that anyone would have noticed—as prices started coming down, they became popular for food delivery. That changed last October when NYC mayor Bill de Blasio decided to start enforcing the law after enough drivers and pedestrians complained. But it [changed again in April]( when there was a backlash to the backlash—from environmentalists because they use less energy than cars, and from immigrants-rights activists because they were such a boon to the immigrant-heavy food-delivery industry (especially for [older delivery workers](. Now, as long as the motor can’t push it past 20 miles per hour, it’s permitted. It’s quite a contrast with Europe, where governments are throwing money at the vehicles to get riders on them. Swedes get a quarter of their cost [subsidized]( up to €1,000. France offered €200 for one year’s time, and now Paris is offering [€400]( for a new e-bike or an upgrade of a traditional bike to pedal-assist. Oslo has [doled out substantial subsidies]( for e-bikes and cargo e-bikes. In China, the center of the e-bike universe, they’ve arguably been too successful. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and several other major cities have [partial bans]( because of [increasing fatality rates](. And they come with their own environmental problems: [Almost all]( Chinese e-bikes use lead-acid batteries, which are much cheaper than lithium-ion batteries but don’t last as long. [New standards]( have been proposed that would bring China’s e-bike regulations in line with other major countries—capped at 25 kph and 55kg. Giphy Poll Do you want an e-bike? [Click here to vote]( Plug me inI keep my pedaling pureI’d rather cab it The fine print In yesterday’s poll, 43% of you said 🍷is the best use of [barrels](. Today’s email was written by [Alison Griswold]( edited by[Whet Moser]( and produced by [Luiz Romero](. 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