How The Other EV Transition — To E-bikes — Is Changing The World
One of the most important transitions taking place today in technology is the shift to electric vehicles (EVs). Most attention is focused on electric cars. That's in part because they are big glamorous items, and they have high-profile cheerleaders like Elon Musk. But there is another side to this transition to electric power, less glamorous but arguably more important, at least in some parts of the world. This is the shift to electric bicycles - e-bikes.
According to a recent article in Bloomberg, battery-powered ebikes now outsell pedal-only models in several European countries. You might think that would be great for the local environment. But Philippe Crist, a micromobility researcher at the Paris-based International Transport Forum, the transportation arm of the OECD, points out why that might not be the case. Asked by Bloomberg whether e-bikes have demonstrably reduced emissions from transportation, he replied:
I don't know for sure, but I suspect it has not. Again, most e-bike buyers [in Europe] - not all, but most of them - are replacing a bicycle, so they were biking already. Of course, lifecycle emissions from bikes of all kinds are far lower than from cars.
By contrast, the uptake of e-bikes in the US has real benefits:
Compared to Europe, in North America you have a greater population of people who've never cycled for everyday travel. For that reason there are more people in North America who are buying an e-bike as their first adult bicycle, or using the e-bike to get places or do chores that they've not used a bike for before. So the benefits of e-bike adoption in North America may be greater than in Europe, because more car trips could be replaced.
That's good news for US cities. But in other parts of the world, the shift to ebikes has a more direct positive impact on the lives of people. For example, in Bangladesh e-rickshaws are widely used, but were illegal until a couple of months ago. An article on the Rest of the World site explains:
There are between 2 million and 4 million e-rickshaws in the country, which have operated without any regulations or monitoring. Once the new regulations come, e-rickshaws will rule Bangladesh's roads, according to experts who have studied the vehicle's usage.
Rickshaws powered by electric motors not only make the physically demanding job of a rickshaw driver easier. They open up the profession to women, with important knock-on benefits for their independence. CBC News reports on an example from India:
A faded battery-powered rickshaw weaves in and out of traffic in New Delhi's northwestern Jahangirpuri neighbourhood on a weekday morning, looking for passengers before sputtering into a narrow space in a row of brightly-coloured three-wheelers to charge its dying battery.
Behind the wheel is Suman, a 36-year-old mother of four, who takes pride in her chosen profession. Suman, who like many Indians goes by only one name, fought against the wishes of her husband and extended family to drive an e-rickshaw to provide for her daughters, who range from four to 18 years old.
As Suman explained:
The best thing about an e-rickshaw is that you are not working under someone," Suman told CBC News. You can make some money, then take a break when the kids need to be sent to school."
These very basic e-rickshaws, which cost around $1,500 to buy in India, lack the massive impact - both metaphorical and literal - that ultra-heavy EVs have in the US. But they may well change for the better the lives of many more people.