I went to a car show in Seattle this weekend - we took the bus there to avoid traffic and paying a lot to park.
I was amazed to see an electric bicycle company with a few on display including the
A2B from Ultra Motor.
There was also another electric bicycle on display, a mountain bike (looked like a Montague, aka "
Swiss Bike") that was just shy of $5K. (!!!!) Note: upon a quick internet search, I guess someone does make a
Montague electric bike now.
Looks like both bikes have some sort of hub motor to drive the bicycles. I have not yet looked into it further. Also, I didn't study up on how weather-repellent the bikes are.
The staff at the booth were pretty busy and they didn't appear to be set-up for demos. It would have been interesting to see. I just wonder who their demographic is. I would think cyclists might not take them seriously - nor would the people who came to the show to look at cars, trucks, and SUVs. I think quite a few (non-cyclists) would laugh at the notion of paying close to $5K for a bicycle and others (the cyclists) would know exactly which other $5,000 bicycle (or just frame and fork) they'd spend their money on - which would likely weigh 1/5th of the A2B's 72 pounds.
Something tacky about the electric bicycle booth was the inclusion of two (of the same model) of a Segway knock-off,
similar to this. These three-wheeled electric-powered "podiums with bike saddles" were quite a bit cheaper than a Segway or one of the electric bikes on display, however, I think they had more in common with an electric mobility chair (
like the Rascal) than they did with the Segway or an electric bicycle. Maybe this was in the spirit of showing "green mobility options" - the e-bikes were at the end of a line of other pure electric vehicles.
