E-bikes : a growing sustainable alternative to cars

We have seen previously that electric cars and vehicles are an interesting alternative to traditional cars with internal combustion engines. But another solution exist : electric bicycles.

There are already 65 million e-bikes on Chinese roads and the market size is fastly increasing Such bicycles compete with cars in large cities like Shanghai as they are cheaper and often more convenient (think about traffic congestions…)

The demand for electric bikes is growing worldwide in both developped and developping nations and the global market is worth $11 billion (8 billion euros).

As Energy Boom explains :

The global market for electric bikes has blown up the last decade. The boom has been spurred by China where the number of electric bikes has skyrocketed from a few thousand in the 1990s to 120 million.

The growth of the electric bike has also found its way into Europe–last year, in The Netherlands where nearly one-third of the money spent on bicycles went to purchasing electric bikes.  Growth in  United States has been much more muted–only 250,000 sales last year–but interest is on the rise.

With burgeoning markets across the world, the electric bicycle has turned into an US$11 billion industry.

Much lighter – and thus consuming less energy – than electric cars, I believe e-bikes have a bright future. Be sure that I will keep you posted on that topic in the future.

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For more, please read this article from the New York Times.