In part III, I promised to describe the obstacles that are keeping electric bikes from taking hold in the Pacific Northwest in the way they have in China. Here are four.
1. Immature technology.
As BikeHugger’s master blogger (and e-biker) DL Byron points out, electric bikes may be past the garage-tinkerer phase of development, but they’re still complicated, imperfect devices, plagued with breakdowns and performance issues. Battery care, for example, is still challenging, though it’s vastly simpler than it used to be.
2. Bike Culture.
In Asian and northern Europe cycling cities, bicycles are ubiquitous utilitarian objects like appliances. In the Pacific Northwest, as throughout North America, cycling is uncommon as anything but a form of recreation and exercise. Among sport cyclists, a major purpose of cycling is to get a good workout, and electric bikes destroy the workout. So sports cycling is no friend of the electric bike.
Meanwhile, the small share of northwesterners who cycle for urban transportation are such a visible minority that they have developed a bike culture, which defines itself against automotive culture. Among other things, urban bike culture revels in muscle power. Case in point: among urban cyclists, the coolest bike on the streets these days is the fixie—a one-gear minimalist cycle like the one pictured above. Riding one is cool in part because fixies are hard work. Another case in point: the flourishing Portland bike-onlyhouse-moving scene (portrayed in the video below from StreetFilms), which may be the pinnacle of bike culture: it proves muscle power can replace a moving van.
Among transportation cyclists, as among recreational cyclists, being human powered—not electric or gas-powered—is a point of pride. As Loren Mooney, editor-in-chief of Bicycling magazine, told the New York Times about the electric bike, “to the core cyclist, it’s cheating.”
As I’ve learned over four car-less years, in the individualism of North American culture, our vehicles come to define our identities—something auto marketers understand well. What we drive, or ride, is a tribe marker, and we all know the meanings: Hummer, Prius, Mustang, Volvo. (Among cyclists, too: Bianchi, Campie, Gary Fisher, homemade fixie.)
Consequently, for North Americans, buying an electric bike is not simply a choice of cost, convenience, and functionality. For better or worse, it’s also a statement of who you are. E-bikes are a product for a somewhat different market than regular bikes. But their spread isn’t helped at all by the fact that existing bike culture among both sport and transport cyclists is antithetical to e-bikes. This barrier is substantial, because bike culture affects not only individual attitudes but also access to and support for e-bikes.
3. Closed distribution channels.
Throughout North America, as VoltWagon entrepreneur Max Dunn noted in a recent paper, “The bike industry consists of two relatively independent segments: the low end sold through mass merchants and the high end sold through specialty bicycle retailers.” Mass merchants such as big-box retailers and sporting goods stores account for 75 percent of bicycle sales, but most of the bikes they sell are used rarely. Many are toys for children. Most bikes that get regular use are sold through bike shops.
Unfortunately, neither mass retailers nor bike shops work at present for distributing e-bikes. Mass merchants reach noncyclists including the affluent baby boomers at the heart of the potential e-bike market, but they lack the expertise and maintenance facilities to support a growing e-bike trend. Bike shops, on the other hand, are dominated by the prevailing bike culture to which e-bikes do not make sense. Their regular customers do not want electric bikes any more than the members of athletic clubs want electric-assisted weight-lifting machines. Almost no bike shops sell e-bikes.
Market analysts at Pike Research describe distribution challenges as among the biggest barriers to e-bikes: “Many manufacturers are trying to find a combination of independent dealers, mass retailers, and online sales that will effectively deliver the vehicles and after-sales service to customers.”
The shortage of e-bike retailers is exacerbated by an even more severe shortage of e-bike repair shops. It’s hard to find a bike repair shop that knows how to fix an e-bike. And electric bikes are finicky and need regular maintenance (see #1 above). Brynnen Ford, the carpool-riding e-biker from part I pictured here, put it this way: “I’m not a bike mechanic and my mechanic is kind of learning as he goes with the electric piece, so I’m never sure if it’s really getting the right care.”
At present, the best e-bike sales-and-service in Cascadia comes from one specialized e-bike store in Seattle, two in Portland, and two others in Vancouver, BC. One promising sign is that about one quarter of Trek’s independent dealers, which are t
ypically the leading bike shops in each city, will stock Trek’s new Ride+ line of e-bikes. As these shops master servicing e-bikes, the maintenance shortfall may diminish.
4. Safety.
Electric bikes promise to make cycling a better option for many people, including those whose weight, health, fitness, clothing needs, or hauling demands make regular bikes impractical. But they do nothing to lower the principal barrier to cycling: the perception that cycling in city streets is unsafe. (It’s actually much safer than most people think. In fact, not pedaling is the larger menace.) Fear of street riding is also the biggest barrier to electrified cycling. If you don’t feel safe on a pedal-powered bicycle at 10 miles an hour, you will probably feel even less safe on an electric bicycle at 15 miles an hour. As Jonathan Maus of BikePortland, Oregon’s definitive cycling blog, wrote in January, “Our current lack of a connected, separated, and comfortable bike network makes many people afraid to even try biking—and simply giving them motors won’t change their minds.”
In North America, the future of electric bikes depends on finding a market that wants their particular combination of lightness, gentle power, and modest range. To date, they have found adherents whose needs they closely match, such as Brynnen Ford and her carpool or Matt Leber and his injured knee. They have yet to find a larger market, I believe, because they are neither fish nor fowl. They make bad bicycles, because they remain imperfect in execution while they’re also heavy and hard to pedal without the power turned on. They also make bad motorcycles. Imagine a manufacturer introducing a motorcycle with a top speed of 20 miles per hour and a one-quart fuel tank that takes several hours to refuel every 25 miles. Not many sales would ensue.
But electric bikes do hold great promise. They could open cycling to huge numbers of additional people, to hillier places, and to heavier loads. Besides, even if their potential market is only one urban trip in twenty, that would still outstrip regular bikes’ current share. And getting to that point would mark an encouraging advance against climate change, oil addiction, and lack of exercise. It would also help strengthen local economies by replacing imported oil with local electricity—plus skilled jobs in electric bike maintenance.
Besides, if electric bikes are proliferating in China, these obstacles must be surmountable, right? They are. China’s lessons are worth understanding, and I’ll cover them in my next (and final) post on the Parable of the Electric Bike. I’ll even reveal why this is a parable. Promise!
Read the conclusion of this series, “The Body Electric.”
Photo of fixie bike rider courtesy of Flickr photographer Looking Glassunder the Creative Commons license. Photo of Brynnen Ford courtesy of Brynnen and photographer Heidi Neff.
Heidi Neff
Thanks Alan for another interesting post! I am heartened to know that there are 5 shops in Cascadia that specialize in e-bikes. The market is bigger than I thought and hopefully growing.Heidi
FalconEV
We do E-bikes in floridawww.falconev.com
FalconEV
We do E-bikes in floridawww.falconev.com
Celia Bowker
I live on Magnolia in Seattle, and, even after working at it for two months, I still have to walk my electric bike up at least one hill!
David
Very interesting post. I would think that electric motor scooters would actually have more appeal, but I don’t see many of them around, either. Can you enlighten us further on that topic?
Alan Durning
David,In China, electric scooters are just as popular as electric bikes. I wrote about electric scooters here: http://www.sightline.org/daily_score/archive/2008/10/06/scooter-ful
Greg Tuke
I have been riding an electric bike for the past 5 years in Seattle. I agree with most of what was said in Alan Durning’s excellent articles, with two very significant exceptions: E-bike technology has taken some major leaps in improvement in the past decade. I now own an e-bike that is fast (top speed 22 mph), and I have yet to find a hill in Seattle that defeats it, and has a range of up to 30 miles. (called the Torque) I have ridden my present e-bike to work, on average, 4 times a week for nearly two years and have only brought it in for 1 minor tune up (free thanks to the extraordinary folks at Seattle’s Electric bikes NW). So my experience with maintenance and efficiency has been very good. Second, I commute 18 miles round trip each day. Now, I am a good, experienced, seasoned biker, but I get tired of riding every day on my rode bike. It rains, some days I feel grumpy, some days I just don’t want the hassle of having to shower and change clothes at work. Some days I want to get there fast. The e-bike is the solution and keeps me out of the car. The niche for this bike are folks who live within 10 miles of their place of work (most of us), want something faster than a bike, but not as dangerous as a scooter or as environmentally degrading as a car. Few of us get a kick out of commuting. This bike makes it very, very fun, gives some exercise, and is quick. You always pedal, and just kick in the e-power throttle when you take on a hill… So, while I think tens of thousands more people would ride an e-bike in Seattle if they just tried it for a week, I agree that the biggest obstacle remains that we have not made commuting a safe-feeling experience. Until we do that, we will have a glass ceiling we cannot break through. http://electricbikenation.blogspot.com
Amy G
The hills, the hills. When I got my husband a (in no way top of the line) e-bike, he could finally have the experience he longed for: biking to work, and being able to get up the big hill to our home after. I would love a folding one, is there such a thing? I have to imagine there is a huge market for these e-bikes all over the Pacific NW, esp because of our lovely hills.
Els
I am the owner of Classic Cycle on Bainbridge Island WA 206-842-9191. We have been selling Electric bicycles for at least 5 years now. The Bionx system and the new Trek Ride+ and we service them. We always have electric bikes in stock and you can come in for a test ride.The article is correct that the e-bike is for a different group of riders, people that normally would not be on bikes. Which is great..it gets more people out of cars and onto bikes! An Electric bike makes it easier to commute, you do not need to get into lycra and you do not need a shower before you sit down behind your desk. The best part is that you can turn that motor off and get into shape!
Dean
You can’t really classify those who ride bikes (even those who just ride for transportation) in the Northwest as a singular culture. It is true that there are the cool kids who are fixated on fixies, but if you really look at the thousands of people who ride on a daily basis, that there are a vast number of sub-cultures.I think there are plenty of people who would gladly use an e-bike for basic transportation provided it was functional and cool in its own way. Kalkhoff e-bikes are among the most popular electric bikes in Europe and they are now available in the U.S. These are state-of-the-art electric bikes that look good and are a blast to ride. Would a hipster trade in his fixie for one? No. But I think there are plenty of people who might be willing to use these instead of cars. I’m one of them (though I’d like a fixie as well).
John, Bikes4Health.com
We sell e-bikes, mount e-bike kits to customer’s existing cycles, and service them here in Seattle on Beacon Hill. We are available by appointment only, and work one-on-one with you for the most efficient use of your time.
Adam Bejan Parast
Don’t forget cost. I’m concerned about cost, that combined with that fact that I need an electric bike that doesn’t look like and electric bike. Right now the price premium is about 1,000 for an electric bike. If that came down to 500 I think you would see a lot more people buying electric bikes.
Tom Ardans
I’ve commuted for five years with an e-bike (A Charger from Electroportal.com) and I must disagree with the point about constant maintenance being necessary. Not for me. Other than regular bike maintenance, I only need to charge it and check chain tension. It’s a great vehicle for me.
Jamie
Thanks Adam, I was wondering how much an electric bike would cost, and $1000 is pretty steep for something you can’t use year-round. Plus, does that include a charger? I would still consider it, but you’re right that if it were below $1000, then it would be easier to swallow.
Dave
I think we are missing an important piece of bike culture that is so often overlooked. I don’t know about how many, but there are a huge number of bicyclists that ride a bike because that’s the only option they have. Too often we tend to ignore them and think of bikers as relatively affluent fitness nuts. These are probably not buying ebikes because they don’t have any money, but any conversation about who is biking should acknowledge these folks.