Electrically Assisted Cycling around the World

This paper will report about Brussels's contribution to the European E-Tour (Electric Two wheelers On Urban Roads) project. This project aimed to prove the viability of electric two-wheelers in different (urban) areas, by providing European cities with a clean, efficient and reliable alternative for the car. Based on a technical identification of different electric bicycles that are available on the European market and an extended questionnaire filled in by their users, we tried to get an idea of the potential of the electrically assisted bicycle. The first part of the paper discusses the user's appreciation. In the past two years 250 persons could test one of five different electric bicycle models for an average period of 7 weeks. Together they drove over 44600 km. A standard questionnaire sounded out their experiences about the strengths and weaknesses of electric two-wheelers and can be found in part one of this paper. The test persons had to fill in-next to the standard questionnaire-a log with their daily trips. In those books a lot of interesting free remarks were given. These collected remarks will also be analyzed in this report. It may be clear that the users appreciate the reduction of physical effort, although most of them spontaneously mention different reasons why they won't buy one. The second part of the paper discusses the performance analysis of one of the five electric bicycles. To get an objective idea of the performances of an EPAC we developed a test bench. By recording the traction force as a function of the torque applied to the crank axle and the imposed speed to the wheels, several performance parameters could be defined (see EVS19).