I found this interesting article in the International Herald Tribune business section about the unprecedented growth of electric bikes particularly in China. It got me reminiscing about my visits there when I was working for Giant Bicycle Inc.I attended some meetings where some quite incredible figures were presented about the growth potential in this market. I even had one memorable visit to an electric bicycle and scooter specific store in downtown Shanghai. Memorable because it involved a white knuckle ride into town in an overcrowded Chinese micro-bus, driven at speed and in the complete absence of any formal ’rules of the road’ (Chinese driving habits have to be experienced to be believed!). The store was enormous, spread across three floors and sold every conceivable type. Everything from the cheapest, scariest Vietnamese roadsters that seemed entirely assembled from gas pipe and washing machine parts to the sleekest, sparkly Gundam/Manga inspired scooters with, and I do not exaggerate, cranks two feet apart and three inches in length at best. Apparently to qualify as electric bicycles had to have cranks and pedals but they were not required to be functional. And of caourse this plethora of products were decked out in most colors. Every possible combination of glitter, holographic Mylar, chromed plastic and blinking LED’s was used to its fullest. When it comes to color the Chinese are nothing if not bold. Alongside all this visual and formal hoopla the products offered by Giant seemed. To be sure, at the time, it seemed to me that I had entered the industrial designers equivalent of the ninth circle of hell but on reflection I see now. I have no doubt we have entered the Chinese Century. Consider these factoids I gleaned the other day: 30% of people with the highest IQ’s are Chinese. What I saw that afternoon as I wandered in a daze through the store was a brashness. Sure there was many junks and poor craftsmanship but there was also lots of inspired pragmatism and balls. When I think back to those interminable meetings where the PD team. We are more fearful of failure than emboldened by opportunity. Self doubt isn't a Chinese characteristic.
So what has this to do with bikes? In the next decade the smartest, lightest, most energy efficient and environmentally benign electric bicycles (and scooters, car & trucks) will emerge not out of MIT or Silicon Valley but China. I guarantee
