Smart eBike Ride: Electric Bike The Best Vehicle Smart Makes?
Nissan Leaf, Solar-Canopy Charging Station In New SIMS Game
The Nissan Leaf is no stranger to videogames. Last year, we had a little race between a Leaf and... Read More
- #6LEADERBOARD RANK
- 1818ARTICLES CONTRIBUTED
- 4COMMENTS POSTED
Smart eBike electric bicycle
Also See
-
Smart eBike: Commute, Ride For Leisure, Or...
-
Smart Electric Drive Ad Ignores Eco Theme, Goes...
-
2013 Smart ForTwo: Strong Enough To Wear A...
See more video »
Unlike the city car however, this vehicle has only half the number of seats, and half the numer of wheels. It's also, technically speaking, a hybrid--using an electric motor on the rear wheel, and... your legs.
It is of course the eBike, Smart's pedal-electric bicycle. And it could be the most convincing vehicle Smart makes.
Perfect fit
On the face of it, the eBike is a perfect fit for the Smart brand, far more so than other car companies which offer branded mountain bikes, skiis, and other assorted corporate-logo'd 'lifestyle' junk.
After all, Smart started with the express purpose of revolutionizing urban transportation, by making parking easier and reducing running costs.
Bicycles may not be a revolution, but they're hard to beat as tools for cutting rapidly across a crowded city.
The bicycle, improved
The main issue with bicycles, to those of us who prefer our transport to have four wheels and a roof, is that you get hot and sweaty when it's dry, and hot, sweaty and wet when it rains.
The eBike won't stop you getting wet when it rains, but thanks to four levels of electric assistance, a large proportion of the physical exertion is removed from every journey.
In fact, it makes all but the toughest inclines a relative pleasure to ascend. You still need to pedal, but the electric motor adds to your own efforts to make the whole process much easier.
It also feels a little more sophisticated than your average bike, with a silent, maintenance-free carbon belt drive between pedals and rear hub, a small LCD display to track your progress, assistance and speed, and built-in front and rear LED lights for safety.
Related Articles
-
ZeitEco Electric Scooter Is A Swiss Army Knife On Two Wheels
-
Electric Two-Wheelers Run Rampant In China, Outrun Regulations
-
Can An 'Ultralight Adventure Vehicle' Be An Electric Bicycle?
-
Is This The World's Most Beautiful Electric Bicycle?
-
Zero Will Now Sell You, Too, An All-Electric Cop Motorcycle
-
Follow Us
On Facebook
Most Popular This Week
More »
Audi Startled By Tesla Sales Success? Deleted Press Release... 
Can Tesla Raise More Than $1 Billion On Soaring Stock Price? 
Four Used Plug-In Electric Cars To Avoid 
How Are Electric-Car Batteries Made? Photos From Nissan's New... 
Toyota Accelerates Switch To Lithium-Ion Batteries, Still Lags... Find Green Cars
Photo Galleries
More from High Gear Media
- Follow Us
Have an opinion?
Most of those Chinese E-bikes only cost about 1/5 to 1/7 of the $3,700...
And it is silly to have a 62 miles assisted range. Nobody want to bike for that long in "commute" situation.
So I am not too surprised when I see ebikes at $2000. But $3700 is really really expensive.
But at $3,700, you can buy a motorcycle...
If I were to guess, I'd hazard that 20-30 miles is more likely on maximum assistance, which is a more sensible maximum range for commuting. And if you only commute 10 miles per day, for example, you'd probably get the best part of a week's worth of riding on a charge.
No suspension and no accelerator... the electric power assists your pedaling.
I'd rather have the possibility to accelerate, even not having to pedal.
As for suspension, the lack of it didn't bother me too much on the test ride. My own mountain bike has suspension and I regret buying one with it - I don't take it off-road enough to justify the extra cost! Suspension is also a bit power-sapping on bicycles - Some of the effort you put into pedaling compresses the suspension, so you need to pedal harder to maintain pace. I expect the Smart is more efficient without.
That's the problem with all the bike that will be coming from the car companies: they're using the lowest common denominator, which is generally the stupid EU laws. I sold my car 2 years ago and have been commuting on a Pedego Interceptor since then. The Smart looks nce and has some excellent features, but if I was forced to use a pedeltec and a max motor power of 250w and max speed of 15 miles/hour, I would have to give up and go back to a polluting car since it would make my already long commute time just too much.
Have an opinion?Join the conversation!