Into China's Micromobili-Verse...in 9 Photos*

Traveling through both large and small cities last month gave me a glimpse into the surprising vibrance & diversity of China’s electric two- and three-wheeler (E2W, E3W) and bicycle market and how it’s evolved over the past few years. Just one disappointing discovery. Let's dive in…

?1.?????? Electric Three-Wheelers (san lun che三轮车, also affectionately called 老头乐 or Grandpa's Joy), workhorse of the urban fabric, are everywhere. While they are by no means new to China, an entertaining video featuring one was going viral on WeChat during my stay. It starred an American who was gifted one of these by his Chinese daughter-in-law and became an instant celebrity in his Dearborn, MI neighborhood. Because of the viral video, this vehicle class was also featured on CCTV2, where they mentioned 15 million units are produced each year in China, mostly in Shandong province. Many are exported to the Global South (Africa and Middle East in particular) where unique business models abound when paired with low-cost solar panel charging stations.

2.?????? The Shared Bicycle (gongxiang danche共享单车)– many Western cities observed, then replicated the boom-bust cycle of the dockless shared bicycle systems from Mobike, Ofo, and countless other fast-followers in their rainbow of fruity colors from 2016-2019. While many of these systems died out during COVID in the U.S., I was surprised to see the largest Chinese cities have helped these shared bicycles endure by integrating them well with public transit and banning their electric equivalent. When you see the density of bikes sandwiched together at the subway stations in the morning in preparation for the rush, it makes sense. Getting that density with e-bikes and managing the rebalancing process would be much more complicated if all electric.

?2.?????? The Shared E-bike (gongxiang diandongche共享电动车) seems to be for the rest of China's cities. I was amazed to learn from Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) China that there are "more than 200 operators nationwide operating over 10 million shared e-bikes in more than 1,000 cities." ~70% of these e-bikes are distributed in third-tier cities or smaller. Like the majority of e-bikes in China these days, they function more like mini-mopeds than bikes. All have throttles, some have pedals (mainly a footrest unless battery dies), most just have tiny crank arm stumps. While seemingly useless, that little stump (along with speed limit of 25 km/h & power limit of 400W) is enough to unlock official classification as “non-motorized transport” and all the benefits that brings (bike lane access and no need for drivers license, as set by the national e-bike standard GB 17761-2018).

Unlike the privately owned e-bikes, the majority of which still use lead-acid batteries, these shared e-bikes use Li-ion batteries for easier charging logistics. More on this later.

4.?????? The privately owned eBike (diandongzixingche电动自行车) - A scene from inside a retailer of Yadea Technology , the largest E2W manufacturer worldwide, shows the dominance of the moped-style e-bike; another surprise! Much different than when I first started investigating this market in 2006 and bicycle-style e-bikes were all the rage, especially in the North. According to ITDP, there were 350M e-bike owners in China at the end of 2022.

ITDP also reports that most privately owned e-bikes in China still use lead-acid batteries. I couldn't believe it, so I had to ask. Sure enough, all of the e-bikes in his store were equipped with trusty lead-acid. When I followed up with a perplexed look and "why??", store clerk replied, “Lithium-ion batteries are dangerous.”

At a different store, the owner said their e-bikes all follow the new standard (25 km/hr limit), but he’d be happy to make it go faster if I had a need for speed, reminding of the famous Chinese proverb, “The top has policy, the bottom has counter-policy”. I guess the US and Europe are the not the only ones with "e-bike tuning" complications.

?5.?????? The eMotorbike (电摩) – this one officially requires a special yellow license plate due to speed and power above the new national e-bike standard, and thus isn’t supposed to use the bike lane as my friend who owned this one explained. This rule seemed laxly enforced and even my friend just kept his plate in the glove box. ?

The style below appears to be the favorite of the ubiquitous “Courier Boy” (kuaidi xiaoge快递小哥), who requires the perfect blend of speed, cargo capacity, and nimbleness in the bike lanes to make the maximum amount of food or parcel deliveries in the minimum time. Another surprise from ITDP: Meituan, the largest food delivery platform in China, had 1 million riders cruising the streets on any given day in 2022. Compare that to the estimated 80,000 "deliveristas" in New York City in 2023.

Besides high-speed, the Courier Boys have a secret weapon – the Battery Swap box. Due to their high daily mileage, they almost all use Lithium-ion batteries, like the shared e-bike systems mentioned above, and there are now dozens of companies offering battery swap service across thousands of locations, many operated by food delivery platforms like Meituan.

6.?????? The privately owned bicycle (zixingche 自行车). Once considered the Bicycle Kingdom, ITDP estimates there are now about 120 million bicycle owners in China, down from a high of 670 million in 1995 (see report by 德国国际合作机构 ). Today, they seem to be mostly used by seniors and teens.

?7.??Finally, the bicycle-style e-bike, or pedelec as they call it in Europe (zhuli zixingche 助力自行车), and the source of my disappointment. While these are wildly popular in nearby Japan, Germany (one out of every two bikes sold), and even the U.S. (roughly 1 million units were sold last year), this is the most hard-to-find species in all of China’s Micromobili-Verse. I only saw one in the wild, and it was owned by the professor I was meeting who is trying to promote greater use of this pedal-powered vehicle type in China (Prof. Xinmiao Yang).

The dismay stems from the gradual shift away from cycling in arguably the most important cycling market in the world. Throttle-powered E2Ws boast a super attractive blend of cost and convenience and are critical part of the sustainable and equitable transport equation. But the bicycle, whether bio-electric or solely human-powered, has well-documented physical health benefits and perhaps greater but less easily measured mental health benefits. From 八方电气（苏州）股份有限公司 to Bosch and the millions of riders around the world, they all point to one unique feature of this transport mode: the eBike Smile. The "joy" factor of pedal-assist e-bikes are often overlooked in policy-making circles. I was glad to see this element included as a criteria for evaluating transport modes in the recently published report by the International Transport Forum "IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF WALKING AND CYCLING IN CITIES ? OECD/ITF 2023".

Prof. Yang is part of small but growing cohort of academics, policy-makers, and businesspeople that see this vehicle type as in important contributor to the growing "Active" or "Slow" Transportation movement in China (慢行交通). Though China produces more pedal-assist e-bikes than probably all other countries combined, they’re nearly 100% for export.

The key question I discussed with many bike and transportation industry insiders last month, and potentially a several billion dollar question to the global bike industry): is there a yet-untapped market for pedal-assist e-bikes in China? And if so, could this potential extend to the Global South (like what's happening with the E3Ws in #1 above)?

In summary, I think the 能源基金会 (Energy Foundation China) put it best in their recent report : "To ensure safe, equitable, convenient, economical, and

lean travel for 1.4 billion people, China must seek sustainable ways beyond cars." No matter human or electric powered, throttle or pedal-assist controlled, 2 or three wheels, adopting an "all of the above" (#1-#7 and more) approach for micromobility in China and rapidly urbanizing countries around the world is more critical now than ever.

Special thanks (and recommended reading) to ITDP and the excellent report shared during my visit 中国电动两轮车生产应用状况、挑战与对策 [Production and application status, challenges, and measures of electric two wheeler vehicles in China] , GIZ and the China Academy of Sciences for their report published last month on a National Active Mobility strategy in China , and the Energy Foundation China's "China is racing towards zero emission road transport: urban mobility beyond cars "

And many thanks to others that are deeply involved in these topics and shaped my thinking on this through their writing and personal exchanges: Qiuyang L. Dana Yanocha Xinmiao YANG Haixiao pan Jacob Mason Ed Benjamin philippe crist Horace Dediu Chris Cherry Dan Sperling Susan Handy yunshi Wang Dannie XIAO and more.

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*9 photos does not actually do justice to the diversity of the micromobility scene in China, more pics and posts to come in future.

#micromobility, #electrification, #cyclingindustry, #sustainabletransport, #electricbike #ebike #etrike #urbanization