Currently e-bikes, not cars, appear to be the world’s best-selling electric vehicle. According to the market research firm NPD Group, the pandemic bike boom boosted e-bike sales by 145% from 2019 to 2020, more than double the rate of classic bikes, reported the New York Times.

While estimates vary, according to the Pew Research Center, Americans purchased around half a million e-bikes in 2020 vs. 231,000 electric cars. In 2021, e-bikes remained the best-selling electric vehicle in the USA with imports at nearly 790,000 units vs 652,000 electric cars bought by Americans, reported Bloomberg Green.

Deloitte projected that 130 million e-bikes would be sold worldwide between 2020 and 2023. In Europe, it’s predicted that twice as many bikes as cars will be bought each year by 2030. This trend has the potential to transform urban transit according to David Zipper, a visiting fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a specialist in new forms of mobility technology.

According to Zipper’s report in the Times, the rapid development of lithium- ion batteries along with the worldwide resurgence of interest in urban cycling, as well as bike-sharing programs, are fuelling the transition.

In the new year, cult brand Rocky Mountain from Vancouver announced that their all-new Altitude Powerplay Carbon 70 was the winner of the Design & Innovation Award eMTB in 2021. “Many brands claim that their eMTB has the same ride sensation as a conventional mountain bike, but we’ve yet to find one with as much truth behind their words as Rocky Mountain,” claimed the judges. “At the heart of this bike is the brand’s own motor, and the Altitude Powerplay demonstrates a level of off-road handling that we’ve not encountered on an eMTB thus far; in terms of agility, it’s no understatement to say that this Rocky has set a new benchmark.”

In the new year, BYCS announced Lanrick Jr Bennett as the City of Toronto’s first Bicycle Mayor. The Managing Director at @880Cities, Bennett, is committed to building cities that work for everyone, with an emphasis on reaching BIPOC and under-served communities.

“I plan to work directly with community organizations to adopt cycling inclusion and safety in the communities, in each of the six boroughs. I will work with employers to adopt cycling commuter programs and BIAs in the city to engage in bike- focussed activities, with an emphasis on reaching BIPOC and under-served community groups.
“In my work as Managing Director at 8 80 Cities, I am committed to building cities that work for everyone,” said Bennett.

Based in Amsterdam, BYCS is a global NGO guided by the belief that bicycles transform cities and cities transform the world.

It launched the Bicycle Mayor program in June of 2016, and there are currently 134 bicycle mayors in cities around the world.

In early March, the town of Banff, with about 8,000 residents, announced a rebate of up to $750 on pedal-assist bikes that have a purchase price under $5,000 as part of a new Residential Environmental Program. An even higher rebate is offered to Banff Access Program members (i.e., Tier 1 = up to $1,000, Tier 2 = up to $900). The financial rebates are to help residents save water and energy, as well as to support transportation methods that help protect the local environment.

In April 2021, two entrepreneurs, Ivan Waissbluth and Nick Gaganiaras, launched NRBI (Near By), a new zero- carbon e-cargo bike delivery service in Toronto. Their passion to provide state-of-the-art logistic solutions for local businesses saw immediate success.

Waissbluth, a cargo bike rider himself, owns Bespoke Butchers, an organic butcher shop, and Gaganiaras had a successful career in logistics and supply chains. When the two became friends, the wheels began to turn.

In fall 2021, Dave Edwards, a passionate rider and former banker, joined NRBI as a part-time delivery driver. Knowing Toronto’s cycling scene via his role with social media sites such as @BikeTO, @CargoBikeTO and others, he became a partner.

“Reactions on the street are very positive — people are mostly blown away when they see you riding a cool e-cargo bike,” said Edwards. “They love receiving their goods by bike and they’re impressed.”

While companies also like the carbon-free aspect, they need and want to see fast, safe and efficient deliveries, that save money and make customers happy, noted Edwards.

NRBI currently has four e-cargo bikes on the road, each with massive capacity. Two units are eye-catching aquamarine-coloured Pro Trike Centaurs made by Babboe, based in Holland, with 850 litres of cargo space (up to 450lbs). “They were secured via Fourth Floor Distribution which is a sister company of Curbside Cycle, a local bike shop in Toronto,” commented Edwards.

Their other two e-cargo bikes are black Triobike Cargo Big units out of Denmark, which were acquired through Allo Vélo, the Canadian distributor based in Montréal, which also operates as a retail bike shop and has a second outlet in Vancouver.

NRBI has been making steady progress and plans to set up another hub in the west end of the city. Their biggest challenge has been juggling the operation and maintaining flexibility while trying to expand with such a small crew of five and a fleet of four e-cargo bikes as demand keeps growing.

And while there are new bikes lanes and other improvements in Toronto, Edwards welcomes the changes but adds that there’s so much more to do in the city from snow clearance, to fixing bike paths that end abruptly, to route shortcomings around construction zones, etc.

What lies ahead for NRBI are multiple hubs around Toronto, 20-30 e-cargo bikes, and perhaps even other cities in Canada. “We want to get good at what we do here first, but for sure other provinces offer great potential, and there’s nothing wrong with looking south of the border as well,” he concluded.

In early November 2021, PeopleForBikes and Call2Recycle announced the launch of the US. bicycle industry’s first industry-wide e-bike battery recycling program. Call2Recycle is considered the largest and most reliable battery recycling program expert in the USA, and their current CEO and President, Leo Raudys, took over in January 2021.

“Call2Recycle was founded as a voluntary, industry-run initiative to keep heavy metals from rechargeable batteries out of the solid waste stream. Since 1994, Call2Recycle has grown from an idea by a group of five battery manufacturers to a pioneer in battery stewardship, collection and recycling logistics,” said Raudys in our interview with him.

Through its established network of more than 16,000 drop-off sites, including municipalities and retailers like Lowe’s, The Home Depot and Staples, Call2Recycle has recycled more than 140 million lbs.
of batteries across the US and about 73 million lbs. in Canada, for a total of 213 million lbs.

Call2Recycle maintains a diverse
customer base, including Stewards,
Collection Sites and Consumers. Stewards
include the more than 200 battery and/
or product manufacturers — such as
Dell, Duracell, Energizer, Panasonic,
Stanley Black & Decker, etc. — who fund the Call2Recycle program to ensure the batteries they are introducing into the marketplace are responsibly recycled.

Collection sites are those collecting batteries for recycling through Call2Recycle, including public-facing sites, such as The Home Depot, Lowe’s, Staples, to HHW/ municipalities, and private entities such as manufacturers, hospitals, military bases and businesses.

The genesis of this new program began in December 2019 when Call2Recycle participated in a discussion with PeopleForBikes members on the topic of battery recycling.

Simultaneously, Call2Recycle began developing a similar program for the Canadian market that commenced in January 2021. The early learning from what was being built for Canada became the foundation for the new collaboration with PeopleForBikes in spring 2021.

Not only a first for e-bikes, the program represents the first of any electric transportation sector to unite under
a single battery recycling solution in North America. The initiative garnered the commitment of more than 40 bike industry leaders from 20 PeopleForBikes member companies, who collaborated as a sustainability task force and electric bicycle committee to design the program with Call2Recycle.

The new e-bike battery recycling program is voluntary and funded by participating e-bike manufacturers, and it’s designed to make the battery recycling program safe and seamless for both retailers and riders. These companies will pay into the industry fund based on the number of batteries placed into the market. The funds collected will be used to administer the e-bike battery collection and recycling program, including recycling kits, transportation and logistics, safety materials and rider education.

Starting in February 2022, e-bike retailers can begin enrolling with Call2Recycle as a participating collection site at no cost. Riders can begin recycling their e-bike batteries in the summer of 2022 where they purchased their e-bike, or locate a drop-off site near them using the locator tool on either Call2Recycle’s or PeopleForBikes’ website.

Call2Recycle handles the management of battery collection, transportation and recycling, while participating retailers will be provided with everything needed to safely collect these e-bike batteries, which includes retail employee training. A widespread rider awareness campaign will also be launched in fall 2022.

The average lifespan of e-bike batteries is about five years. The next-gen battery processors in the recycling process means that roughly 95% percent of battery material can be recovered.

Industry analysts estimate that more than 12 million electric bikes will be sold in the USA between 2020 and 2030 — in 2020, an estimated 600,000 e-bikes were sold there. Call2Recycle expects to collect and recycle 15% of the e-bike batteries coming out of the current market, growing to 65% by 2030.

For more information, visit www.call2recycle.org and www.peopleforbikes.org

In September 2020, according to the World Bank Blogs, the rise of cycling in the Philippines due to the pandemic led the national government to allocate more than 22 million USD towards active mobility infrastructure.

This investment resulted in the country’s largest bike lane construction program in its history — almost 500 kilometres across Metro Manila, Metro Cebu and Metro Davao were constructed in less than a year.

Several financial partners assisted to form a World Bank team. With additional support from the Netherlands Embassy, a series of training sessions were undertaken on topics
such as Dutch cycling infrastructure principles, which are considered among the best in the world.

The new cycling infrastructure was designed to meet the highest safety standards, as the World Bank team not only worked with road safety experts but also involved the community, including persons with disabilities, women and the elderly.

Accell Group, a European market leader in e-bikes and the second largest in bicycle parts and accessories, has been acquired by an investment fund consortium led by KKR, the largest private equity investor in digital services and technology in Europe, as well as Teslin, holding approx. 10.8% of the shares, for approximately 1.56 billion Euros. The offer is subject to certain customary conditions and is expected to be completed this year in late Q2 or early Q3.

Well-known bicycle brands in Accell’s portfolio include Haibike, Winora, Ghost, Batavus, Koga, Lapierre, Raleigh, Sparta, Babboe and Carqon, while XLC is their brand for bicycle parts and accessories. The company employs approximately 3,100 people in 15 countries worldwide.