Downshifting a Notch

One thing about transportation policy is that licensing and regulation really define the market as far as what vehicles are offered for sale. I present to you today the iZip Express electric bicycle. It's a bicycle with a battery pack and electric motor. It basically lets any regular person achieve the performance of a Tour de France bicycle racer.



I suggest reading the review at the LA Times or checking out the Youtube clip above. The electric motor assists your pedaling so that you could easily maintain 15-20 mph. I haven't ridden one, but I suppose the feeling is like ET in the bike basket making your bike fly.

Since this thing is a bicycle, it has all the advantages and disadvantages of a bicycle, aside from the motor assist and the $3000 price tag. Advantages are easy parking, extremely high efficiency, and no licence, insurance, or registration needed. Disadvantages include sharing the road with cars, the whole theft problem, and the limited durability/puncture resistance of bicycle tires. The battery range of 31-62 miles is more than enough for any bicycle trip you'd likely plan around town, and at 60 lbs, you could ride it home on a dead battery if necessary.

Comparing this to gasoline powered transportation gets a little tricky because the closest competitors are really those lawnmower engined scooter boards which were pretty popular a few years back but are most definitely not street legal. The smallest street legal gas scooters are models like the Honda Metropolitan which costs $1,900, has a top speed of 40 mph, gets between 80-100 mpg, and requires registration and insurance. It also has a four stroke engine which makes it infinitely cleaner than the smoke-spewing two strokes of years past. In the end, I don't think it's a fair comparison, both because they're targeted at different markets, and because it's not fair to compare a new, innovative product intended for early adopters to a mature product like a motor scooter. The electric bicycle is simple enough that I could see someone building a bolt-on module to retrofit regular bicycles for a very economical price.

Update: One more note on prices. The $3,000 iZip Express is the top of the line model powered by lithium ion batteries. They also have more affordable models which cost $1,200 with NiMH batteries and $600 with lead acid batteries.