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TheCityFix.com: E-Bike Boom in China
Originally posted on TheCityFix.com.
From TIME.com:
On the Streets of China, Electric Bikes Are Swarming
June 14, 2009
By Austin RamzyIn China, electric bicycles are leaving cars in the dust. Last year, Chinese bought 21 million e-bikes, compared with 9.4 million autos. While China now has about 25 million cars on the road, it has four times as many e-bikes. [Compare these staggering figures to more modest numbers from the United States, where more bicycles (2.6 million) were sold than cars and trucks (2.5 million) during the first quarter of 2009.] Thanks to government encouragement and a population well versed in riding two wheels to work, the country has become the world’s leading market for the cheap, green vehicles, helping to offset some of the harmful effects of the country’s automobile boom. Indeed, as engineers around the world scramble to create eco-friendly, plug-in electric cars, China is already ahead of the game.
But is the popularity of the e-bike in the world’s most populous country necessarily a good thing?
Read about the pros (i.e. increased mobility) and cons (i.e. lead pollution) here.
Tags: Discussion
2 comments for “TheCityFix.com: E-Bike Boom in China”
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Erica
Thank you Erica for your immensely enlightening blog. I love how it condenses and channels all the important topics to the reader.
As for the e-bike, whatever new product that appears on tht market there will almost always be some sort of critique about it. In this case it is the lead emission from the battery, not to mention the lead-producing manufacturing process of the battery (3kgs of lead from the production of just 1 battery). However, this technology is only in its infancy, I doubt very much that the e-bike and its lead-emitting battery will set the precedent for future vehicles. Lead is not a lucrative resource such as oil, therefore, in my opinion, there is little interest in keeping these lead-polluting batteries. There is bound to be new inventions into the field of e-bikes, e-cars in China, for instance, as consumer awareness about the polluting effects of petrol increases, and concern for high oil prices and the environment grows.
Thank you.
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