e-bikes

Car and Motorcycle Companies Now Making Electric Bikes

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by Roy Furchgott from https://www.nytimes.com They see branding opportunities as the pandemic and a desire by cities to curb traffic propel e-bike sales to new heights. The transportation industry has seen the future, and the future is 1895. That was the year Ogden Bolton Jr. of Canton, Ohio, was awarded U.S. Patent 552,271 for an “electrical bicycle.” A century and change later, electric bikes have gained new currency as car and motorcycle companies like Ducati, Harley-Davidson, Jeep, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Yamaha have horned into the market with their own designs. While the pandemic has accelerated bike sales, the overriding attraction is that cities worldwide are beginning to restrict motor traffic. These companies are betting that e-bikes are the urban vehicles of tomorrow — or at least vehicles for good publicity today. “In the past 12 to 18 months, you have seen a lot of new brands come into the market,” said Andrew Engelmann, an e-bike sales and marketing manager at Yamaha, which has been in the electric bike business since 1993 and claims sales of two million worldwide. “We in the U.S. have not seen this new energy toward cycling since Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France.” Credit the coronavirus pandemic, which has ignited bike sales of all stripes, but none so much as e-bikes. While retail unit sales of bicycles from January to October last year were up 46 percent from a year earlier, electric bikes were up 140 percent. Measured in dollars, regular bikes were up 67 percent and e-bikes 158 percent — so don’t expect a discount. Those numbers, from the market researchers at NPD, do not include online-only retailers such as Rad Power Bikes, so sales may actually be higher still. Ogden Bolton aside, there is a historical connection between bicycles and motorcycles. Many early […]

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E-bikes that look like motorcycles take another hit in Canada

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by Maryse Zeidler from https://www.cbc.ca Appellant’s lawyer says his client relied on Motorino XMr for affordable transportation The British Columbia Court of Appeal has upheld a B.C. Supreme Court ruling that e-bikes designed to look and function more like mopeds or scooters do not meet the province’s definition of a motor-assisted cycle and therefore require a driver’s licence, registration and insurance. The case was brought forward by Ali Ghadban, who was issued a ticket in Surrey, B.C., in 2018 for riding his Motorino XMr without a driver’s licence and insurance. He said he wasn’t able to obtain them from the provincial insurer, ICBC. Two of the three Appeal Court justices assigned to the case agreed with the B.C. Supreme Court judge’s decision from May 2020 that found although the Motorino XMr is outfitted with pedals, limited power and a maximum speed of 32 km/h, it doesn’t qualify as a motor-assisted cycle because it’s not designed to be operated primarily by human power. At the heart of the issue are the XMr’s small pedals, which Court of Appeal Justice Harvey M. Groberman agreed would do little to propel the nearly 115-kilogram bike. Groberman said the XMr is designed to almost exclusively operate as a low-powered electric motorcycle, or as “a very heavy, impractical bicycle.” Although the XMr meets many of the technical requirements of a motor-assisted cycle as defined in B.C.’s Motor Vehicle Act, Groberman wrote, it doesn’t do so in practice. “If a piece of legislation defines ‘cat’ as ‘a small four-legged furry mammal that purrs,’ we would not expect that definition to include a dog fitted with a loudspeaker that plays a purring sound,” he said. Affordable, environmentally friendly Lawyer Dan Griffiths, who represented Ghadban in the case, said his client is a man of modest financial means who

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Shimano-Powered Ducati e-Bikes Reaching U.S. This Month

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by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com Trekking, mountain or enduro – whatever your pleasure, Italian company Ducati has you covered this winter. The Italian company announced the arrival on U.S. shores, starting this month, of three e-bikes it developed over the past year. Ducati joined the e-bike game not long ago after it partnered with THOK. Since then, a whole range of such two-wheelers has been developed, and is already available across Europe. Starting December, American customers will be able to enjoy them as well, provided they find the resources and courage to pay thousands of dollars for one. The first to be made available at American Ducati dealers this month is the e-Scrambler, meant both for city use and trekking. It’s a pedal-assisted machine powered by a Shimano Steps E7000 motor and a 504 Wh battery of the same make. With the wheels wrapped in Pirelli Cycle-e GT tires, it can be rolled off the lot in exchange for $3,995. The second arrival is the MIG-S, a mountain bike also powered by Shimano hardware (E8000 motor and 504 Wh battery). The two-wheeler is packed with high-performance parts, including Marzocchi Bomber Z2 fork, Fox Float TPS rear shock, and 12-speed SRAM SX transmission. It goes for $5,295. The most expensive of the three is the TK-01RR, an enduro bicycle running a Shimano EP8 drive unit and 630 Wh battery that gives it 85 Nm (62 lb-ft) of torque with a maximum servo assistance ratio of 400 percent. This one will become available in February next year for the princely sum of $7,995. “The introduction of these e-bikes continues the Ducati tradition of creating exhilarating two-wheeled experiences and expands our product range into a growing segment,” said in a statement Jason Chinnock, Chief Executive Officer of Ducati North America. “In addition to

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E-bikes to rule the US EV market in next decade

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In the last couple of years, e-bike sales have been growing steadily in the US, but they still represent a small part of the overall segment in the country. Electric vehicle market in the US in the next decade will be dominated by e-bikes, claims a media report. It forecasts a total of 113 million e-bikes will be sold in the country between 2020-2023. Sales of the electric bikes in the US have grown more than eight-fold since 2014, claims the report further. In the last couple of years, sales of e-bikes have been growing steadily in the US, but they still represent a small part of the overall bike segment in the country. As the report claims, e-bike sales jumped by an incredible 91 per cent from 2016 to 2017. Also, it grew 72 per cent from 2017 to 2018 to reach $143.4 million, as revealed by market research firm NPD Group. Between 2006 and 2012, e-bikes represented less than 1 per cent of total annual bike sales. In 2013, US customers bought 1.85 lakh e-bikes, while across all of Europe, 1.8 million units were retailed. The media report quotes Jeff Loucks, executive director of Deloitte’s Technology, Media, and Telecommunications centre, who said that e-bike sales will not increase evenly across the US. He forecasts cities, in particular, will see the biggest adoption rates. As he said, “We’re seeing more people move into the urban core of cities throughout the United States. And it’s just going to put a huge load on the roadways and on public transportation systems if some of that isn’t taking place by bike.” from https://auto.economictimes.indiatimes.com/

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