NEWS

China is the world's largest producer and marketer of electric bicycles. After years of development, electric bicycles have gradually become an important means of transportation for People's Daily short-distance travel. In recent years, many electric bicycles have become bigger, heavier and faster, with poor safety performance in the process of use, traffic and fire safety hazards, causing a lot of casualties. Therefore, a new mandatory national standard for electric bicycles (hereinafter referred to as the new national standard) was officially implemented on April 15 this year.

On March 14, the state administration of market supervision, the ministry of industry and information technology, and the ministry of public security jointly issued the opinions on strengthening the supervision of the implementation of national standards for electric bicycles. Now, the new national standard has been implemented for nearly two months. How is the implementation of the new standard? What is the impact on the e-bike market? This reporter undertook visiting investigation in xi 'an.

Sales hit a snag and businesses pushed for new national standards

"Business is so bad these days that we can't sell many cars a day." On June 2, in an e-bike store in Santa road, xi 'an city, sales staff lu dewen told reporters that the implementation of the new national standard has a significant impact on e-bike sales. On the one hand, we are cutting prices to clear the inventory of old national standard cars. On the other hand, we are waiting for the manufacturers to release products in line with the new regulations."

In recent days, the reporter visited the e-bike market in xi 'an and learned that after the implementation of the new national standards, the e-bike market of Santa road, taihua road and jingjiu road in xi 'an was not optimistic about the e-bike sales.

The reporter noted that several important provisions of the new national standards, the electric bicycle must meet the whole vehicle quality is not more than 55 kg, the maximum speed is not more than 25 km/h, the battery nominal voltage is not more than 48 v, the motor power is not higher than 400 watts, with pedal riding function and other conditions. But most of the electric bikes on sale in xi 'an are already exceeding their weight and speed limits. When selling old national standard e-bikes, merchants will explain to consumers that there will be a three-year transition period, which will not affect the use of licensed e-bikes.

With the implementation of the new national standards, the production of electric bicycles has also changed from license management to mandatory product certification, and the quality and safety performance of new cars will be more reliable. On June 2, zhang li, the head of a specialty store in the taihua road e-bike market in xi 'an city, said, "these are new national standard cars with 3C certification marks on them. New national standard e-bikes after April 15 all have big qualification certificates." She told the reporter that the pedal and 3C mark are the main signs to identify the old and new gb electric bikes. But many consumers still have doubts about whether to buy the new gb bike, mainly because the pedal is in the way, and they are not satisfied with the speed and range.

"Old standard cars usually have a range of more than 60 kilometers and a speed of 30 kilometers per hour. The quality of the newly launched national standard car in our store is not over 55kg, but the range is less than 50km, so the sales situation is not optimistic." 'the biggest seller on the market is the old national standard,' Ms. Zhang said.

Consumers are divided over the new standards

"My main reason for buying an e-bike is to pick up and drop off my children, but of course I want to be as safe as possible." Ma guotao, a resident of xi 'an, told reporters on June 3 that he was not familiar with the new standard but was impressed by the mandatory product certification after visiting several shops. "It is now possible to buy toys for children without mandatory product certification, and it would be safer for e-bikes to have mandatory product certification." Mr. Ma said he doesn't have high requirements for the range and speed of his e-bike, and that he can pick up and drop off his children at school every day.

In the interview, many citizens expressed their appreciation to the new national standard of electric bicycles that the speed should not exceed 25 kilometers per hour. "I read on the Internet that the new national standards stipulate that the maximum speed of e-bikes should not be more than 25km/h, mainly considering that if the speed is too fast, it will increase the probability of traffic accidents. In case of emergency, cyclists will have a short time to take actions to avoid danger, and the braking distance will also increase correspondingly." Yang jing, a resident of xi 'an, said the speed of e-bikes on the roads is too fast for them to collide with other vehicles or pedestrians. Therefore, the electric bicycle speed control in a reasonable range, is to ensure the safety of the important premise.

"I may not buy the new national standard car, my home is more than 20 kilometers away from work, the range of the new national standard car is not ideal, the speed of 25 km/hour is not as fast as the bicycle. Living in xi 'an huayuan juncheng district of ning feng told reporters, electric bicycles small, convenient, use is very convenient when commuting, recently had planned to buy a, but after the implementation of the new national standards, he weighed the pros and cons, suspended the purchase plan.

After the implementation of the new national standards, the biggest impact on consumer groups should be electric bicycles to make a living delivery riders and Courier delivery.

Sun gang, whose hometown is in weinan city, came to xi 'an at the beginning of this year to apply for a job as a "hungry me" food delivery rider. In order to do his job well, he spent 3500 yuan on an electric bicycle. In the wind and rain, this electric bike is his biggest dependence. "It feels like work has just settled down, but the e-bike may not work soon." After the implementation of the new national standards, sungang and colleagues to discuss the next how to do, that there are several years of transitional period, we temporarily put the hanging heart down. But he is somewhat reluctant to retire his old state-certified vehicles in a few years. "our work requires a lot of e-bikes," he says.

The industry is calling for a swift transition

According to statistics of xi 'an electric bicycle industry association, at present, the total number of electric bicycles on the road in xi 'an is more than 3 million, according to the new national standards, more than 95% of the vehicles exceed the standard.

In view of the current standard of electric bicycle, total bureau of national market supervision, the ministry of industry and information technology, the ministry of public security jointly issued by the department of three "on strengthening the opinions of the electric bicycle to the supervision of the national standard" is put forward, in the before the implementation of the new standard in use does not conform to the old standard and do not conform to the new standard of electric bicycle, set up the transition period, issuing temporary plate; Those who fail to obtain temporary license plates according to local regulations or continue to take the road after the transitional period expires shall be punished strictly according to law by the public security organs; We will encourage people to actively replace and scrap vehicles, and accelerate the elimination of vehicles that do not meet the new standards by exchanging old vehicles for new ones, buying back vehicles at a discount, and issuing subsidies for scrapping vehicles.

The reporter understands, up to now, city of each district of my province still did not introduce the transition method that is aimed at electric bicycle new national standard. In response, guo xinlin, President of xi 'an electric bicycle industry association, said in an interview that he hoped xi 'an could learn from the experience of other provinces and cities across the country to formulate and introduce transitional measures for electric bicycles exceeding the standards and set a transitional period for vehicles exceeding the standards.

Reporters found that since 2018, there have been a number of places in the implementation of the new national standards of electric bicycles implementation plan. Zhejiang province has set a 3-year transition period for electric bicycles that exceed the standards that consumers have purchased or are using. Wuhan, hubei province, has extended the registration period by 45 days, and all vehicles can be registered before the end of may. Changsha, hunan province, has extended the license period by 75 days, with a transition period of four and a half years.

Experts said that after the official implementation of the new national standards of electric bicycles, consumers have bought does not meet the new national standards of electric bicycles, local governments should be based on the actual situation, through natural scrap, old for new, discount to buy back, issue scrap subsidies, motor vehicle management and other ways, to properly solve.