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kristalJiang Ruming, a marketing manager, owns a van, but for many errands, he hops on a futuristic-looking contraption that lets him weave rapidly through Shanghai’s messy traffic. He rides an electric bicycle.
Half a world away, in San Francisco, the president of that city’s board of supervisors, David Chiu, us an electric bike to get to meetings without sweating through his suit.
And in the Netherlands, Jessy Wijzenbeek-Voet recently rode an electric bicycle on a long trip that, at 71, she would not have been able to make on a standard bike.减肥 英语
Detroit may be introducing electric car designs and China may be pushing forward with a big expansion of its highways and trains. But people like Mr. Jiang, Ms. Wijzenbeek-Voet and Mr. Chiu — as well as delivery workers in New York, postal employees in Germany and commuters from Canada to Japan — are among the millions taking part in a more accidental transportation upheaval.
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It began in China, where an estimated 120 million electric bicycles now hum along the roads, up from a few thousand in the 1990s. They are replacing traditional bikes and motorcycles at a rapid clip and, in many cas, allowing people to put off the switch to cars.
In turn, the booming Chine electric-bike industry is spurring worldwide interest and impressive sales in India, Europe and the United States. China is exporting many bikes, and Western manufacturers are also copying the Chine trend to produce models of their own. From virtually nothing a decade ago, electric bikes have become an $11 billion global industry.2021高考时间公布
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“It’s miraculous — it takes the hills out of riding,” said Roger Phillips, 78, who rides an electric bike around Manhattan. The nsation is akin to a moving walkway at the airport, he said.
Electric bikes have been a “gift from God” for bike makers, said Edward Benjamin, an independent industry consultant, not only becau they cost more — typically $1,500 to $
3,000 — but also becau they include more components like batteries that need regular replacement.
In the Netherlands, a third of the money spent on bicycles last year went to electric-powered models. Industry experts predict similar growth elwhere in Europe, especially in Germany, France and Italy, as rising interest in cycling coincides with an aging population. India had virtually no sales until two years ago, but its nascent market is fast expanding and could eclip Europe’s in the next year.
“The growth has been tremendous in the last two years,” said Naveen Munjal, managing director of Hero Electric, a division of India’s largest bicycle and motorcycle maker. He expects sales at Hero to increa to 250,000 electric bikes in 2012, from 100,000 in 2009.
While the American market has been modest — about 200,000 bikes sold last year, by some estimates — interest is rising, said Jay Townley, a bicycle industry consultant. Best Buy began lling electric bicycles in June at 19 stores in San Francisco, Los Angeles an
d Portland, Ore. Trek, a manufacturer bad in Wisconsin, recently began lling a bike created by Gary Fisher, a prominent bicycle designer.
“Electric-assisted bicycles will change how people think about bikes in urban areas,” predicted Mr. Chiu of San Francisco, who has been riding a prototype of the Trek bike since the summer.
Improvements in technology are resulting in lighter designs that appeal to older cyclists. “Now you’ve got a product you can prent to a baby boomer,” Mr. Townley said.wft什么意思
New York City’s largest electric bike store, NYCeWheels, opened in 2001, and in the last few years, business has been growing, said Bert Cebular, the owner. In Chinatown, electric bikes are showing up on nearly every corner and veral shops have recently appeared, lling bikes imported from Chine factories.
As the global market develops, two types of electric bikes are emerging. One is similar to a standard bicycle with pedals, but it has an electric motor that engages on command or
the forgottenwhen the cyclist pedals. The are the most popular type in the United States and Europe, with many people using the electric motor mainly for help in wind or on steep hills.
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By contrast, in China, electric bicycles have evolved into bigger machines that remble Vespa scooters. They have small, wide-t pedals that most cyclists do not u as they travel entirely on battery power. The bikes move at up to 30 miles an hour, with a range of 50 miles on a fully charged battery.
The larger models are causing headaches for global transportation planners. They cannot decide whether to embrace them as a green form of transportation, or ban them as a safety hazard. Some cities are studying the halfway measure of banning them from bicycle lanes while permitting them on streets.somerhalder
