14 Jan Electric Bicycle

Perhaps a new experience in mobility, source of employment and the necessity for clean air.

The history of bicycle goes back to 1860s in Paris, however in terms of mechanism for mobility it goes back to 1819 with replacement of horses. In the year 1890, the first classic bicycle came with technological boom in the manufacturing across United States and Europe.

The bicycle has a very long history and was foundation for many innovations such as motor bikes and even aviation. It became the symbolism for freedom and experience until 1930 when the Great Depression made it a suitable alternative for fuel. Hence, the demand for utility rose rapidly across every corner.

This mechanical horse had surpassed its expectation and had won people’s heart. It is true that we still remember our first bicycle and have lots of memory to share.

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”

Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)

Bike Culture –

Anyone who loves riding a bicycle can tell you that it’s all about the experience and joy. This experience and joy is what makes it unique and dates back to World War II era when it won peoples heart in every manner. Hence, biking as a culture got evolved across many part of the world. Biking as a sports was developing in the same time as bike evolved in the 1900s.

One can’t understand Europe without experiencing the long bike rides through city or forest or even beach areas. Europe tour without bike is like watching everything from your hotel window, where you know everything without experiencing.

Many places have accepted the bicycle as a major mode of transportations for individual such as NYC, Pasadena California, Netherland, Italy, Germany and France to name the few. This also led the respective government to formulate the biking policies and safety rules.

“E-bike is more of an incremental innovation which had actually increased the mobility distance“

In terms of bike culture, e-bike did not made any additional change except adding more kilometer and load carrying capacity. With these two advancements, it had revolutionized the experience inline with the motor bikes. Motor bikes has been facing the intense competition since the e-bikes are have already entered the rapid commercialization and have the potential to partially replace the market share. However, motor bikes have it’s own history and potential which is difficult for e-bikes to completely overlap.

Source of Employment –

The direct and indirect form of employment is most obvious with every product and so with the bicycle industry. The other form of employment which bicycle and more appropriately e-bike had generated is the delivery options. The most prominent reason is that it has better load carrying capacity and fairly higher kilometer range with a single charge for a city roads. The other reason being the flexibility of experience and employment where biker can add extra accessory for his/her part-time employment and at the same time remove the accessory to enjoy his weekend on a long trip.

The cost comparison between the bicycle, e-bike and motor bike can be fairly said as 1 : 5 : 15 for a medium range product. This cost ratio will change significantly depending on bike variant and country. As we see here, the cost is also a reason where switching from manual to battery does gives you the additional benefit of motor bike without incurring the massive cost. However, the additional benefit must be compared with manual bike to understand its context.

Hence, parcel delivery on e-bike does makes a sense when someone is limited on money and wants to work on a part-time basis.

Necessity for Clean Air –

The environmental factor is more pronounced in the city area where it had made a significant push for the e-bikes. The volume of public transport system and personal vehicle has been adversely affecting people, be it a long queue in the traffic signal or dangers of speeding vehicle where commuter wants to reach home early.

The increase in lanes and widening the roads was thought as a solution in the late 90s but still the city planners and urban designers are not very sure if this is really the solution. City population have been increasing and skyscrapers have been putting more vehicle in the limited floor area.

Given the urban commutation complexities, e-bikes does not provide the better answer but it does provide some answer in terms of taxi hiring.

Taxi hiring do reduce to some amount with rented e-bikes where commuter saves some money and can reach his destiny with little effort if its nor raining outside. This also depends on social aspect as one would be hesitant to take an e-bike if he/she just wants to prove his salary difference while getting down of a taxi.

“Local authorities are making serious effort to de-congest the roads and make them safer for all age groups”

The change is very slow and one good thing is that the people have become environment conscious and wants to have a better mobility solution that does not affect them adversely.

Challenges for e-bikes –

1. Reviving the Experience:

The bicycle is known for its experience and joy which has been experienced by almost every people. It is difficult to revive the old feeling with just an addition of batteries. The revived fervor at a higher cost can be a great challenge for most e-bike companies.

2. Climate and Terrain:

Bicycle and motor bikes have adapted itself to the demanding need of climate and terrain. If its raining outside or the terrain is bumpy, both have had enough improvisation to address the demanding needs. Driving while drizzling is the most beautiful part of it which had been expressed in several Hollywood movies.

3. Battery Cost and Performance:

The cost of battery and its performance should justify each other in order gain market share. How soon the battery will be replaced and what will be the performance degradation year-on-year. The manufacturer will have to have the answer ready as people are more conscious these days while making an investment.

4. Landfills and E-Waste Management:

Growing landfills and e-waste is still a great pain for regulators and municipal. The biggest challenge is the waste management for the discarded batteries. Absence of proper waste management will create its own problem in near future and may endanger the industry as whole. For example, the case of asbestos and mercury waste management had induced a serious long term ailment.

5. Policies:

NYC and Netherland etc. had to formulate the bicycle policies when more and more people adopted bicycle as an alternate transportation. The separate drive lane, road markings, anti-theft policies, separate parking etc. which we all know and come across daily in our life. Hence, with e-bike the government intervention might be needed to make the charging ports available in the prominent places so that the people do commute in fear of loosing battery power.

There can be and will be other challenges as e-bike keeps evolving until its real potentials are known. The acceptance of this battery powered horse is more observed in the younger generations especially especially school and college going people.

However, we have to wait and watch the lifecycle trajectory of e-bikes until it evolves to its full strength.

Source:
1. Bicycle Blueprints, NYC. Transportation Alternative.
2. Bicycle History, David V Herlithy.
3. Municipal Reports – US, France, Germany, Italy.