The line between electric bicycles and electric motorcycles has been getting increasingly blurry – though perhaps not because the vehicles themselves are actually that hard to tell apart.

Instead, much of the confusion comes down to terminology. High-powered electric dirt bikes capable of reaching motorcycle-like speeds are increasingly being referred to as “e-bikes,” despite sharing relatively little with the low-speed electric bicycles millions of Americans use for commuting and recreation.

Now the U.S. bicycle industry is asking federal regulators to make that distinction much clearer.

PeopleForBikes, the bicycle industry’s leading trade association, recently testified before the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), calling for stronger federal regulations that specifically distinguish electric bicycles from higher-powered e-motos and electric dirt bikes.

“E-bikes and e-motos are fundamentally different products, and federal safety regulations need to reflect that distinction,” explained PeopleForBikes Policy and General Counsel Matt Moore. “When high-powered electric dirt bikes are marketed as e-bikes, it creates confusion for consumers and puts the credibility of legitimate e-bikes at risk.”

There’s a real nomenclature problem hiding underneath all of this. The term “e-bike” is widely used as shorthand for “electric bicycle,” but it isn’t exclusively used that way. Motorcycles have been called “bikes” for generations, and motorcycle media and riders will sometimes casually refer to electric motorcycles as “e-bikes” too, just in the way a biker refers to his Harley as his “bike”. In fact, it all comes from the same root. We don’t call motorcyclists “motorists”, do we? No… we call them “bikers”.

Source link