A large fraction of the whole population of Chine (~1.2 billion) lives along the coast. Population density there is at least 4 times that of the US East Coast. Now imagine the congestion and pollution that would result from having every person in China drive a car.

Electric two-wheelers make perfect sense for China in terms of both road capacity and affordability. Tailpipe criteria emissions are zero, which is a massive gain relative to two-stroke engine. However, most of the electricity used to run these vehicles is produced at coal-fired plants built to antiquated designs.

In China, owning a car is very much a status symbol right now, something that millions aspire to trade up to at some point in the future. The authorities are investing $165 billion in rail infrastructure, much of it electric and some of it high-speed (~186mph). Perhaps the combination of E2Ws and high-quality electric rail service will persuade a new generation of big city dwellers in China that owning a home is more important than owning a car - let alone multiple cars per family.

I find this pushback on electric two wheeled vehicles verytelling: "City policies of promoting public transit, along with investment in transit infrastructure"

Public transit has always struck me as a bad deal. It restricts choices, unduly influence is real estate prices (positively and negatively), and always requires massive public subsidies in order to function. I wouldn't be surprised to find if electric two wheeled vehicles were cheaper to operate and provided faster transportation than public transportation. That difference alone would account for the rise in popularity of two wheeled EV's.

one other comment made me cringe which was that the two wheeled TVs don't require drivers license or helmet. Bicycle accidents are frighteningly common, very damaging to the body and have very long lasting effects. One of the most significant forms of damage is to the head because the damage comes from a vertical drop of your head to the ground and not the forward velocity (although that doesn't help matters much either).

As they say in the big scooter community, "all safety gear, all the time."

I lived in Shanghai last summer, with time spent in Beijing and Wuhan. The electric scooters were quite common in all of those places, although most common in Shanghai and least common in Beijing -- I suspect a function of population density in the downtown area [Shanghai density is much more than Wuhan downtown, which is much higher than Beijing which covers much more land area].

What's driving it? My bet is storage space and closeness. On the storage front, most folks simply don't have a place to park a car, either at their home or at their destination. Scooters, on the other hand, can be parked on the sidewalk under protected shelters.

As for the bike lane itself, I don't think that's as big an issue for driving choice -- the bike lane was often more congested than the auto lanes, and recent construction in places like Pudong favors the auto lanes over [all kinds of] bike and pedestrian travel.

Why 2 wheels over 4? Space. Why electric over gas? Dunno.

For city use electric is better than gas as:
You can charge it at home,
There may be simpler licensing requirements.
[ For longer range or "lifestyle" biking a gas bike would be better ]

From a city point of view, you get less pollution and noise.
From a national point of view, you reduce fuel imports.

2 wheels gives better use of space than single occupancy cars and can move through congested traffic faster.

The main problem is safety and weather - but you could mandate the use of cycle helmets - whatever about licensing.

The advantage over pedal cycles is that you don't get so hot and much of China gets V hot in summer.
Charging shouldn't be much of a problem as the power requirements for an e-bike are very low compared to a car or a plasma TV.

There is a spectrum of advantages and disadvantages between a push bike and a car, and e-bikes and e-scooters are two more points on it.

More choice has to be a good thing.

No, it isn't, not if they use e-bikes of about 200-300w each.

The point of e-bikes is that they are very low power.
Very low power indeed compared to everything else.

An e-bike weighs about 25KG. Add another 60 KG for a rider and you have an all up weight of 85-90KG.

Compare this to the average westerner in his/her car - 1- 1.5 Tons or more.

Also, because they are battery powered, they can be charged when the grid is least stressed (at night).

But the main thing is the power requirements are very low. If it takes 600 WH to go to and from work, it doesn't really matter if the electricity is generated from coal or a renewable source.

If you go home and turn on the AC, to keep cool while watching a 42" plasma, that is a different matter, but if people used e-bikes for short (< 10 KM) urban travel, this part of the power problem would be solved.

The key is e-bikes, not e-cars, not even e-scooters: e-bikes which are very low power.

The problem is how do you keep people on them as their income rises ?

Hard problem.

+ there is nuclear for base load.
The problem is to build it quickly (and safely) enough.

We hear lots about the Chinese coal fired plants, but little of the rest of the story.

Coal is cheap, fast and dirty. The new Chinese coal generators are being made as cheaply as possible, and as fast. They are not being built to last. They are a temporary energy solution.

Hydro projects are more costly, take longer, and must be very very well built. We hear lots about the Three Gorges Dam, built to make 18.2 GW. There is also the Yellow River Hydroelectric Development set to make 15.8 GW. A huge electricity transmission line is being built to power Tibet, but as soon as the rest of the planned hydro projects are built it will be able to carry power out of Tibet and into eastern China. These plans include huge dams on all five big rivers originating on the Everest mountain range. They will make power and control water flow preventing drought as glaciers retreat.

Chinese electricity sector also involves nuclear power, lots of it, but they are very very quiet about this because of other countries misuse of nuclear technology.

And what about wind generators? Last year the Chinese wind generating capacity increased by 95%. This compares well to the world increase of 37%.

Chinese President Hu is committed to building a resource-conserving and environment-friendly society. Electric powered transportation is a large part of achieving this.

I would buy and drive an e-bike in a heartbeat except that I could only operate it for half the year due to cold, snow and ice where I live.

I need a four wheel drive, enclosed and heated, e-bike!

On the other hand, the demand for bigger vehicles like SUVs are also increasing, as recently reported. Sigh.

IIRC, the segway patent was filed in 1994, so in six years it will expire -- and China will have a ready market for it.

[q->t to email]

I can see how one day we might be buying vehicle "e" drivetrains from China for US vehicles, though I don't think an entire Chinese vehicle will be sold in the US any time soon.

All,

Don't be so down on China and renewables. They are installing renewable energy faster than anyone.

If you look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroelectric under the section titled, "Major schemes under construction" you'll see China is slated to add 82 Gigawatts of Hydro power in the next 6-10 years.

I think electic-motor-augmented bicycles are preferrable to 2-stroke engine variants because they turn on and off more easily, don't smell as much when you wheel them into your flat, and since bicycle trips tend to be short, the limited augmented range is not as much of an issue.

@countrymouse,

You can't argue with a commiitted true-believer in antique technology. Most really think that mass transit is more "efficient" somehow, and good enough for "them", the proletariat masses. (Presumably keeping the auto lanes free for the exclusive use of the "Nomenklatura", as in Russia.)

Any simple study will show that even the most efficient, the auto Bus must carry 17 or more passengers for every moment it is in operation, in order to better theh mileage of a small compact car carrying a single driver, not to mention the operator costs.

@ Warned,

China is going to continue building big hydroelectric dams. They will be ecologically disruptive, and some may even fail catostrophically. That said, think about the trade offs. If, as they say, they build 82 Gigawatts of peak generating capacity in the next 10 years, that could power more than 20 million US homes annually. This will displace a huge amount of coal fired power plants. Because so much of China's water starts up in the Himalayas, there's just a crazy amount of potential energy for them to tap with that much elevation drop along the length of their rivers. They would be crazy not to develop it. In the harsh energy calculations it's probably the only rational choice.