Electric Two-Wheeler
An electric bike (e-bike) is a two-wheeled vehicle powered by electric motor and battery . There are two primary types of electric two-wheelers (E2Ws). The first type resembles a bicycle and is called a pedelec (pedal electric cycle), equipped with bicycle pedals and a compact battery pack attached to the frame. It is an electric bicycle where the riderâs pedalling is assisted by a small electric motor; thus it is a type of low-powered e-bike. The second type of E2W resembles a gasoline powered-scooter and can also be equipped with pedals. It is entirely electrically powered and can be ridden without pedalling. The operating speed of E2Ws is around 30 km/hour, while the maximum speed depends largely on the kind of the battery pack and its capacity. The weight ranges between 23 and 80 kg, which also depends on the frame and type of the battery pack used. Because of their light weight and efficient drive train e-bikes are among the most energy efficient modes of motorized transport existing today, consuming about 1.8 kWh per 100 km, which is one-tenth of an electric vehicle (Cherry et al. 2016).
While in Europe electric two-wheelers are still very exotic and the prices remain high, e-bike ownership is rapidly growing. In some countries in Europe e-bikes are even seen as having exceptional potential in increasing the cycling rate or the share of two-wheelers in assisting trips under 10 km (Umwelt Bundesamt 2014). In the last few years several countries (Belgium, Norway, the Netherlands) and individual cities have started to offer subsidies for the purchase of e-bikes, and ultimately supporting e-bike assisted commuting. China has been the leading supplier of e-bikes in Europe (Conebi 2016) with e-bikes turning into a new source of trade tension between EU and China in 2017.
China is the worldâs largest manufacturer, consumer and exporter of e-bikes with e-bike sales growing exponentially until 2014. Currently, it accounts for 92% of the global market in e-bike sales and will remain the global leader in the years to come (Navigant Research 2016). There are 700 registered e-bike producers in China, which are largely clustered in Zhejiang, Jiangsu provinces and Shanghai (Ruan et al. 2014), with the number of kit manufacturers being over 2600. A city of Tianjin has over 120 manufacturers alone and is the largest e-bike production region in China (Lin 2016).
At the same time, surprisingly, the e-bike industry in China has remained completely on its own, relying on commercial success in the domestic market and imports, rather than government support and subsidies that came to aid the rapid development of electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing since 2013. The e-bike industry in China has developed in spite of the high risks and uncertainties caused by inconsistency in regulation of e-bike mobility in the cities and marginalization of e-bikes in Chinese urban space.
Currently, there are over 200 million urban residents in China for whom E2Ws are the most important transport mode (ITDP report 2017). E2Ws and electric tricycles in China have become a means of production for a significant number of self-employed urban residents and rural migrants and turned into the vehicle of the booming e-commerce (The New York Times 2016). Currently, the ownership of E2Ws exceeds car ownership, albeit with the latter catching-up rapidly, growing annually at a record pace of over 10% (Wu et al. 2014; Xinhua News 2016).
Some leading researchers consider E2Ws in China as the most rapidly adopted alternative-fuel transportation mode in the history of motorization (Cherry et al. 2016). In China, however, pedal-assisted e-bikes and e-scooters are categorized as non-motorized vehicles and are required to comply with bicycle rules. E-bikes can only use bicycle lanes and it is forbidden to carry adult passengers, with both rules being constantly broken by common users. The performance of the e-bike largely depends on the type of the battery pack, with cargo and courier e-bikes normally using a high-capacity lead-acid battery pack, which gives a longer range, higher maximum speed and greater cargo carrying capacity. The lead-acid battery life is normally two years, which is covered by the warranty, and can be later exchanged for a fee at a dedicated retailerâs shop, clusters of which can be found in big and medium-sized cities all over China.
The relationship between authorities and various groups of road users with the E2W riders have been uneven and ambiguous, while the e-bike policy has been highly controversial (Cherry et al. 2016). Different cities banned the use of E2Ws several times, such as the city of Guangzhou in as early as 2006, and then in 2014, with the most recent ban imposed in 2016 (Su and Feng 2016) or Beijing as early as in 2002, then repeated in 2006 and 2016. In Shenzhen , the authorities went even further and banned electric bikes in the city centre, specifically targeting the E2Ws used by the informal ride-providers and express deliveries. The express deliveries that were realized mostly by e-bikes stalled. The migrant workers who were the main employees for this job lost their relatively fast and stable way of getting ahead in life. At the same time life was going on as usual in many other Chinese cities in the backstage of Chinese urban politicsâZhengzhou, Nanning, Kashgar, Datong, Chengdu to name a few.
In 2016 first-tier cities showed their intention to blanket ban electric two-wheelers thus demonstrating their intolerant attitude towards the e-bike as an undesired element of the urban transportation system. In spring 2016 ten major streets in Beijing were closed to electric two-wheeler , in Shenzhen over 18,000 e-scooters were seized and scrapped (China Dialogue 2017). Some of the reasons mentioned were the higher accident levels, heavy traffic and the lack of bicycle lanes. The latter was not surprising, as once a âkingdom of bicyclesâ (Mei and Wang 2008) China has transformed into the empire of cars , expanding the major roads at the price of dedicated bicycle lanes. With the new upsurge of the re-introduction of two-wheelers and the growing popularity of bike-sharing in the 2016 to 2017 period the necessity for the bike lanes and indeed a more comprehensive infrastructure to accommodate two-wheelers came about.
E-bikes are also the catalyst for the debate for increased attention to the role of two-wheeler mobility and their impact on everyday life and livelihoods of people, often in the informal economy. Mobility studies literature has largely overlooked the significance of two-wheelers , that are in no way âsecondaryâ in significance to the automobile culture but in fact a dominant mode of transportation in many countries in the Asia/Pacific region, while sub-Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia remain the least common places to find a car (Pew Research 2015).
Electric two-wheelers have transformed the life of urban residents in many cities in China and reshaped the practices of individual and family movement, temporality of work and leisure-related journeys and transformed meanings of mobility as âconvenienceâ. In the context of increasing environmental pressures they may become a crucial element in facilitating socio-technical transition, that is a âfundamental transformation towards more sustainable modes of production and consumptionâ (Markard et al. 2012) in urban transportation.
The development of e-mobility in China is unique due to the complex political context and the nature of the institutional environment characterized by competing and overlapping bureaucracies at every level of administration (Shapiro 2012). Despite the central government authority, 33 provincial governments exercise their authority to manage local issues. With the central government responsible for construction of long-term strategies and discursive frameworks, short-term plans are implemented by local authorities. The case of âfractionalâ restriction of e-bike mobility in some cities in 2016 and more recently the introduction of city-specific laws of regulating bike-sharing very well reflect the âfragmented authoritarianismâ model (Lieberthal 1992; Mertha 2009) of decentralized decision-making in China where decisions are âworked outâ between diverse levels of bureaucracy, local authorities and central government, rather than being dictated solely by Beijing.
In effect, local governments express different views on mobility futures and the role of e-bikes, have diverse ways of nurturing the local e-bike industry and operate with different interpretations of central government policy (Ruan et al. 2014). It is the local government that had a final say on shaping futures of e-bike mobility in the city or province and this has led to a complex and diverse environment of e-bike mobility in China.
The Study
Arguably, there is no better test case than China for examining the process of experimentation with urban e-bike mobility and challenges related to integration of the E2W into urban transportation. The case of e-bike development in C...