Japan is undergoing a boom in the electric bicycle market, as improvements in technology – most notably the length of time the battery will hold a charge – has made it more attractive to consumers.
The bicycles are proving popular with parcel delivery services and rental firms.
A revision in Japan’s Road Traffic Laws last year allows the bicycles to use more electric power, making them easier to run.
The company “Renta Cycle Kamakura Nishiguchi,” which hires out only electric power-assisted bicycles, is going strong, for example.
It’s located in a glass-walled shop in front of JR Kamakura Station in Kanagawa Prefecture, and has a fleet of 50 electric bicycles.
The shop is open from 6:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., and has three rental time frames–”Daytime,” “Nighttime” and “Continue to rent.”
Nighttime customers are mainly company employees and students who use Kamakura Station to go to their offices or schools.
When they go home from the station at night, they can rent a bicycle for 500 yen per night. The next morning, they return it to the shop after riding it to the station. Under a month-long contract, the price ranges from 2,900 yen to 5,900 yen.
Many daytime customers are tourists who visit local travel spots including Tsurugaoka-Hachimangu shrine or the Great Buddha statue at Kotokuin temple. Other customers include homemakers who use the bicycles for shopping.
Use of electric bicycles is spreading among businesses, as well.
In 2002, a major parcel delivery service company, Yamato Transport Co. started to use electric bicycles connected to carts. These “New Threeter,” are used in residential areas where there are many roads too narrow for trucks, and are popular with delivery drivers, who do not have to leave cars idling as they take parcels to people’s doors.
Yamato is now increasing the number of outlets which use conventional push carts and New Threeters. Those outlets are scheduled to number 1,000 by 2012.
Japan Post Group also introduced 80 electric bicycle-drawn carts in Tokyo and Osaka at the end of 2008.
At present, it uses 22,000 mini-trucks to distribute mail. However, it plans to replace part of the fleet with electric bicycle-drawn carts in an effort to help curb global warming.
It has also introduced about 800 electric bicycles without carts at post offices throughout the country.
Electric bicycles are also expected to spread among operators of “velotaxies,” or bicycle-drawn rickshaws used for sightseeing.
Velotaxies, which were originally developed in Germany, are now operated in more than 25 cities throughout Japan. In addition to Tokyo, Kyoto and Nagoya, they are used in Oda, Shimane Prefecture, where they ferry tourists around the World Heritage-listed Iwami Ginzan silver mine.
