Will your next vehicle be an electric bike?
The Other Electric Vehicle: E-Bikes Gain Ground for Americans Avoiding Gas Cars
Electric cars weren’t the only thing to post record sales last year. A growing number of Americans are turning to electric bikes for at least some of their transportation needs.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ot...d-for-americans-avoiding-gas-cars-11659758415
e-bike sales more than tripled between 2019 and 2021
Existing bicycle giants are investing heavily in e-bikes, including Shimano, Giant, and Accell, all of which have annual revenues in excess of $1 billion
strong sales of e-bikes suggest that even in car-obsessed America, rising prices for automobiles, fuel and insurance are pushing some consumers to at least supplement the use of their cars with e-bikes. The cost of electricity for charging an e-bike is vanishingly small, compared with the cost of fueling an automobile
While e-bike sales are strong in the U.S., they are dwarfed by what’s happening elsewhere. In Europe, five million e-bikes were sold in 2021, according to the Confederation of the European Bicycle
Industry, more than five times the U.S. figure. In China, annual sales of e-bikes consistently top 30 million, according to Shanghai Metals Market Information & Technology
Co. Part of this is cultural—bikes and scooters have, after all, been a staple of many cities across the world
Advocacy groups in the U.S. have been trying to make American cities safer places for people to get around by means other than automobiles, but the rise in pedestrian
and cyclist fatalities during the pandemic indicates the country still has a long way to go
electrek.co
