'Kingdom of bicycles' in electric age

China, the "kingdom of bicycles", is facing the challenge of streams of electric bikes on congested urban roads along with conventional vehicles.

A new regulation in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region requiring electric bicycles be registered for a license plate has aroused controversy. Henceforth, all electric bicycles must be registered with the police, and all new purchases must meet national standards, with limits on weight and speed, or be banned from public roads.

In Guangxi, the so-called "e-donkeys" are widely used means and have caused more and more accidents.

In the four years since 2009, there have been over 1,800 traffic accidents involving electric bicycles, with 538 deaths and over 2,000 injuries.

With the growth of the urban population in China, inexpensive, fast and relatively clean electric bicycles are increasingly popular.

In spite of being called bicycles, the e-donkeys are faster than common bikes and can be tricky to handle.

The national standard for such bikes was set in 1999 and now more than 90 percent of the bikes on the market fail to meet it, breaking the traffic rules by speeding and overloading.

A significant number of traffic accidents in China are caused by e-donkeys and the riders are usually untraceable by current law.

In Nanning, capital of Guangxi, the number of electric bicycles amounts to about 800,000. They have been involved in about 30 percent of the city' s traffic accidents.

Some other provinces and cities in China already have regulations to tame the e-donkeys.

When the new regulations were issued in Guangxi, locals were concerned that the selection of e-bicycles they can buy in the future will be curtailed.

On August 9, electric bicycle market in Nanning saw a rush to purchase, as bikes bought before August 10 can be registered even if they do not meet the national standard.

At 6 a.m. stores on Zhonghua Road, which usually open at 9 a.m., were already busy.

"The e-donkeys in my store do not meet the national standards, and it is the last chance to buy one today," said a salesman among large crowds of shoppers, adding that more than 90 percent of the electric bicycles on the market did not meet the national standards and those that do have hardly sold.

As earlier as July 17, some bike shops in Nanning closed for one day to protest against the new regulation, saying that it will be a fatal blow to their business.

"The standard products have no market. Substandard products on the market are acceptable to consumers," said Zhu Zhixian, an official of the local Kaideli electric bicycle company.

There has been almost no supervision of manufacturers with regard to the standard and this has let the industry grow unchecked. Electric bicycles on the market today almost all weigh more than 40 kg, with speeds of up to 60 kmph.

Li Dehua, president with the Guangxi Electric Bicycle Association, said that if the national standard was strictly followed, there would be almost no electric bicycles on the Guangxi market.

In 2011, Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province,implemented similar registration for electric bicycles following the national standards. Stores closed for three months as a result of poor sales. Many consumers went to nearby cities to buy electric bicycles and some still ride them on the road without licensed plates.

The limits on the speed and weight fail to meet current demand, said Zhou Yan, secretary-general of Guangxi Electric Bicycle Association.

"I don' t think the weight limit is scientific," said Zhou. "If producers are forced to produce bicycles to the standard, they might select low-quality steel and other accessories. That would be hazardous for riders.

Insiders said that a new national standard for the electric bicycle could be introduced soon, taking the industry's health and people's concerns into consideration.