Shanghai, December 18 (Gasgoo.com) China will postpone the implementation of its controversial new standards for electric bikes, or battery-powered bikes, Xinhua News reported earlier this week, citing the country's standardization administration.
The new standards issued last week by the administration was scheduled to take effect next year, but the new rules have met with heated public debate.
According to the new standards, an electric bike to be designed in future should weigh over 40 kg and travel at a speed of 20-50 km/h. This suggested riders of such e-bikes would need licenses to travel, the same as motor bike riders.
The new rules have caused quite a stir among the public. Some people argue that e-bike riders would be put in danger if they traveled along with cars on the same lane. But pedestrians and bike riders are exposed to life risks too if the fast-moving e-bikes are treated as normal bikes, others say.
The new rules, if applied, could also mean bad news for over a thousand small manufacturers and dealers of e-bikes as they were worried that the new standards were too strict to follow.
Under these debates and the public pressure, the standardization administration on Wednesday announced postponement in implementing the new standards.
While it is on target to sell more than 12 million cars this year, China is also on track to sell 20 million e-bikes, if trends hold from 2007 and 2008, when 20 million e-bikes were sold each year.
