Ride the China boom in electric bikes
A start-up is pinning its hopes on the niche market for the high-performance two-wheelers as a green alternative to petrol motorcycles
Like many commuters in Beijing, David Sawatzky, a Canadian who has been living in the city for three years, started riding an electric scooter a year ago because he was sick of traffic jams.
"With an electric bike, I can always know about how long it's going to take me to get somewhere," he said. "In a traffic jam, if I take a taxi, I am not sure how long it will take."
While the hordes of electric motorcycles and scooters on the roads are mostly inexpensive, mass-market bikes, the potential for the green mode of transport as an alternative to petrol motorcycles also brings hope to the manufacturers of higher-performance electric motorcycles.
Riding about 20 kilometres a day on average, primarily for commuting to work, Sawatzky, a teacher in Beijing, said he was saving a lot of money on taxi fares after buying a 3,300-yuan (HK$4,190) scooter and would be willing to spend more on a bike.
We want to make something with better quality so it costs more, but they are reliable
"If I would buy a new electric bike, I would probably spend no more than 10,000 yuan," he said, adding that he expected some people to be willing to pay even more for better performance.