A lucky side effect of the last coronavirus scare in China — the EV surprise! 🛵
This was an amazing story 10 years ago, with 1,300 different Chinese manufacturers of Electric 2-Wheel (E2W) vehicles. Today, thanks to E2Ws, China has more EV drivers than there are drivers in America.
I was reminded of my update to Weinert’s analysis by a current WSJ article proclaiming a bold new future for E2W vehicles in China and India. These slides are from a deck I presented to a bunch of corporate groups in 2010, updating his 2007 work. The Chinese E2W boom started in 2003, and Weinert argues that the inflection point came by chance, during the SARS outbreak. People were afraid to take mass transit, and when they switched to an E2W, they discovered that the total cost of ownership was less than the public bus fare (even after factoring a replacement VRLA battery into the total cost of ownership).
My summary of Weinart: https://flic.kr/p/7RWowf
His original 2007 deck: https://www.slideshare.net/deepaksharma20us/electric-bikes-15814689
Recent WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-future-of-electric-vehicles-may-ride-on-two-wheels-11587812401?mod=e2tw
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