Electric bike

courtesy :  Electric bike

Popularity

E-bike usage worldwide has experienced rapid growth since 1998.

China is the world’s leading producer of e-bikes. According to the data of the China Bicycle Association, a government-chartered industry group, in 2004 China’s manufacturers sold 7.5 million e-bikes nationwide, which was almost twice the year 2003 sales; domestic sales reached 10 million in 2005, and 16 to 18 million in 2006. In 2016, approximately 210 million electric bikes were used daily in China.

With time passing many ebike brands emerge and took fame in countries worldwide. And as the e-bike’s popularity increase so did the competition between manufacturers to provide the best quality and features to customers in order to stay at top.

One interesting thing is, regardless of all these brands being popular in different countries such as USA, Canada, Europe. Most of their manufacturing and distribution plants are based in China. This helps them lower there prices and stay in competition.

This race of popularity ends up in competition between electric bikes manufacturers, often results in a beneficial way to consumers. Bringing new and unique features and making innovation in the bikes design, improving build quality, lowering prices, etc. These all are few tactics that companies do in order to stay customers first choice. One more sales tactic these companies use is to offer e-bike coupons that any buyer could use to save money on the purchase of their electric bike. Brands try to give as much discount to attract as many buyers. This gives them a happy feeling and sensation of satisfaction when they ride around the town, knowing that they got the best deal on their ride.

According to trade umbrella body CONEBI, electric bike sales in the EU were over 5 million in 2021, up from 2 million e-bikes in 2016, up from 700,000 in 2010 and 200,000 in 2007. In 2019, the EU implemented a 79.3% protective tariff on imported Chinese e-bikes to protect EU producers.

Technical

Motors and drive-trains

The two most common types of motors used in electric bicycles are brushed and brushless. Many configurations are available, varying in cost and complexity; direct-drive and geared motor units are both used. An electric power-assist system may be added to almost any pedal cycle using chain drive, belt drive, hub motors or friction drive. Brushless hub motors are the most common in modern designs. The motor is built into the wheel hub itself, while the stator is fixed solidly to the axle, and the magnets are attached to and rotating with the wheel. The bicycle wheel hub is the motor. The power levels of motors used are influenced by available legal categories and are often, but not always limited to under 750 watts.

Another type of electric assist motor, often referred to as the mid-drive system, is increasing in popularity. With this system, the electric motor is not built into the wheel but is usually mounted near (often under) the bottom bracket shell. In more typical configurations, a cog or wheel on the motor drives a belt or chain that engages with a pulley or sprocket fixed to one of the arms of the bicycle’s crankset. Thus, the propulsion is provided at the pedals rather than at the wheel, being eventually applied to the wheel via the bicycle’s standard drive train.

Because the power is applied through the chain and sprocket, power is typically limited to around 250–500 watts to protect against fast wear on the drivetrain. An electric mid-drive combined with an internal gear hub at the back hub may require care due to the lack of a clutch mechanism to soften the shock to the gears at the moment of re-engagement. A continuously variable transmission or a fully automatic internal gear hub may reduce the shocks due to the viscosity of oils used for liquid coupling instead of the mechanical couplings of the conventional internal gear hubs.

The main advantage mid-drive motors have over hub motors is that power is applied through the chain (or belt) and thus it utilizes the existing rear gears (either external or internal). This allows for the motor to operate more efficiently at a wider range of vehicle speeds. Without utilizing the bicycle’s gears, equivalent hub motors tend to be less effective propelling the ebike slowly up steep hills and also propelling the ebike fast on the flat.

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