The future of e-bikes seems murky in America when compared to other locations such as China and Europe, where the car and motorcycle are quickly taking a backseat to the electric-powered bicycle.

Consider this situation in China, where Zhou, a regular family man uses his e-bike to travel the city streets and pick up some groceries at the store. Along the way, he meets and joins up with hundreds of other commuters who are riding on e-bikes, too. His wife also uses the electric bike to do some errands, and his son has bought another one to use for work.

Now compare that scene to this one in America. Paul uses his e-bike to ride around town, buying supplies and doing some errands. He does this every day, but it’s a rare thing for him to see another e-biker on the road. What’s more, the…

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Magna International, known as the number one auto-parts company in Canada, is widening its horizons and extending its business to include e-bikes.

This venture by Magna may be helping Canada in becoming a major competitor in the “bionic bikes” industry, but critics are saying that it also has the potential of becoming another financial failure, much like the doomed Magna Entertainment horse-racing project that cost the company millions of dollars in capital.

Even company CEO Frank Stronach may have lost some sleep over this new endeavor, but not his right-hand man, Manfred Gingl, who actually resigned from his position as vice-chairman and company director just so he could head up the new Magna Marque e-bike division.

Manfred Gingl has all the confidence in the world that e-bikes will be big in Canada, since he has already sunk $2 million of his own money into the venture. Even his boss, Stronach,…

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At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, this month Japanese electronics manufacturer, Sanyo, unveiled its e-bike, the Eneloop Hybrid Bicycle.

Sanyo’s e-bike takes the shape of a town bicycle with little evidence of being lithium-ion battery powered, too.

The Eneloop Hybrid Bicycle gets approximately 46 miles on a single charge. While braking and cruising down hill, the lithium-ion battery, which is harnessed to the bikes frame, charges for extended battery power.

E-bike manufacturers hope to increase its sales in the US market, but rely on a change in consumer attitudes to do so. For the most part, the negativity surrounding these hybrid machines are slowly lifting away. And they’ll continue to disappear with the rise in prices a the pump.

Though not a cheap investment, the Sanyo Eneloop Hybrid Bicycle is sure to save consumers in their commutes over the long course. At worst, in pedal-mode, the e-bike…

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The Copenhage Wheel is a prototype bicycle wheel designed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the famous MIT. It basically turns any bicycle into hybrid, self-powered bike. The wheel was unveiled in the Danish capital Copenhagen, coinciding with the UN conference on climate change. The wheel utilizes technology similar to that of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) used by Formula One cars. MIT’s SENSEable City Lab director Carlo Ratti explains how the wheel works: “When you brake, your kinetic energy is recuperated by an electric motor and then stored by batteries within the wheel, so that you can have it back when you need it. The bike wheel contains all you need so that no sensors or additional electronics need to be added to the frame and an existing bike can be retrofitted with the blink of en eye. In a…

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