Today’s New York Times has an electric bicycle story inspired by Sanyo’s recent push to promote their Eneloop hybrid-electric bicycles at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It quotes a number of industry sources and makes a number of the usual points in favor of electric bikes. (Most trips are short, modern designs work well and have plenty of power, lithium-based batteries are very effective, industry is gearing up, etc.)
It also says:
But there may be a greater challenge for companies like Sanyo and other e-bike makers. People tend to think of their transportation, like their clothes or cellphones, as an expression of their identity.
In China, riding an electric bike conveys professional achievement, even a certain degree of wealth. People in the United States, said Ed Benjamin, an independent consultant in the bike business, don’t quite know whether these bikes are fashionable. The e-bike is “an ambiguous statement,” Mr. Benjamin said.
