Proper law will help e-bikes to lead green march

The electric bicycle we see today was invented in the 1990s, but the Chinese government, enterprises and consumers still have different views on the development and management of e-bikes. Their dispute mainly revolves around e-bikes' technical standards, storage battery pollution, safe usage and, most importantly, traffic management.

But despite the dispute, the e-bike industry has developed rapidly over the past two decades. In 1998 only about 58,000 e-bikes were produced in China. By 2015, however, more than 200 million e-bikes, twice the number of automobiles, were in service in China. In some small and medium-sized cities, 10 to 30 percent people use e-bikes as a mode of transport, and in about half of China's cities more e-bikes are used than bicycles by commuters. This means e-bikes have become a major mode of transport in China's urban areas.

To some extent, e-bikes meet the traffic demand of middle - and low-income groups due to their efficiency and low cost. E-bikes also meet the requirements of the express delivery and logistics industry. Take Shanghai for example. In 2013, the city had about 82,000 express delivery employees, who used e-bikes to deliver between 50 and 100 packages each every day.