It might sound strange since electric bikes are known for their ability to ride faster and farther with less exertion, but I often ride my e-bike with the power turned off.
I wasn’t always this way. Especially not in the beginning. I first got into electric bicycles back around 2009. That was before it was easy to buy one, so I built one instead.
How I got into electric bikes
I wasn’t a cyclist and I wasn’t drawn to electric bikes because they were bikes. Instead, they were just a better way to get around the city. No car ownership hassles. No bus schedules. Just going.
My first e-bike didn’t even have pedal assist. It was built on a rigid Trek mountain bike with a twist throttle that unleashed 2,000 watts of power to get me flying at over 30 mph (48 km/h). Rim brakes, zero suspension, and the foolish bravery of a 20-year-old male. Oh, college.
This was a decade and a half ago, before most e-bike laws were a thing, and I had unwittingly built what was basically a DIY light electric motorcycle. That was my introduction to electric bikes. So it should come as no surprise that I wasn’t what most people would consider a cyclist.
My first e-bike. Don’t laugh, this was circa 2009 and things have come a long way.
My early years of e-biking were entirely utilitarian. E-bikes were always just a fast, efficient way to slice through the heart of a city in a fraction of time it would take a car (and with several times the amount of fun!).
But over time, the idea of pedal assist began to grow on me. I wasn’t really in search of the fitness aspect; I ran 3-5 miles a day. But I eventually discovered just how much fun pedaling could be. There was something to the idea that you weren’t on a machine, you were part of it.
Over time I became better and better at it. My cycling fitness improved (though I was by no means an athletic cyclist). I would use lower and lower levels of pedal assist power until eventually I realized that maybe I don’t even need the pedal assist. At least, not sometimes. And so I started just turning the pedal assist power off.
Pedal assist level zero became a new concept to me.
Turning off the pedal assist power
I know you might be thinking, “well then just ride a non-electric bike, ya dingbat.” And I hear you, but I don’t want that either. Because it’s not that I always ride with the bike off. In fact, I almost always have my e-bikes “on,” just with the pedal assist set to zero.
Essentially, I’ve turned off the bike’s pedal assist power. That means I’m the only thing supplying any power when I pedal. But whenever I need it, such as when trying to quickly get across a major road full of death machines with heated seats, a twist of the throttle unleashes the power of two to three highly conditioned cyclists cranking on my pedals for me. It’s a comforting safety net, and also a nice way to take the edge off if I do happen to come across a hill that is just a bit too painful for my single-speed e-bike that day.
So essentially, the “e” part of my e-bike is always there. It’s just not getting used on those rides unless I suddenly need it in a pinch.
I don’t always eschew my throttle for the duration of rides. In fact, during times when I’m still focused primarily on transportation, I’ll use higher pedal assist power levels or even purely throttle to get where I’m going quickly. I still think of my e-bikes fundamentally as forms of transportation, not fitness. That’s the way my brain is wired and it will probably never change. E-bikes are car replacers.
But the ability to take the same machine that I use to visit friends, buy groceries, or zip on over to the beach, and instead use it for fitness without any modification, is one of the coolest aspects of e-bikes.
So yes, not all of my rides are purely pizza-powered. But the ones where time isn’t of the essence often are. When I don’t need to go fast, I can enjoy going slow and doing the work myself. Just this morning my wife sent me out to buy a bottle of wine to bring to some friends hosting dinner tonight. Where’s the rush? I’m getting something I don’t understand and will undoubtedly pay too much for. Why hurry?
Instead, I dropped it into pedal assist level zero and had a lovely morning ride through a quiet city (Friday is the weekend here), all at my own pace and with my own two legs doing the work. It was so nice that I’m still coming down off of that high, which I used to immediately bang out this article.
I’d tell you what wine I got, but I don’t understand it.
All of this is to say that if you have an e-bike that you use purely for urban transport, then I totally understand you. That’s exactly how I started.
But over time, I learned just how much more there was to the world of e-biking than just getting around. From the mental health benefits to the physical health benefits, a slow, easy pedal ride once in a while may just be a nice way to connect with your e-bike in a manner you haven’t considered before.
While much of the Western world is still figuring out how to get more people on electric bikes, China just flipped a switch, and the results are staggering. Thanks to a generous nationwide trade-in program rolled out around six months ago, China has seen an explosive surge in electric bicycle sales, with over 8.47 million new e-bikes hitting the road in the first half of 2025 alone.
The program, which offers subsidies to riders who trade in their old, often outdated electric bikes for newer, safer, and more efficient models, has sparked a new e-bike sale boom in a country already dominated by e-bike travel. In major provinces like Jiangsu, Hebei, and Zhejiang, over one million new e-bikes were sold in each region in just six months. That’s a tidal wave of e-bike sales.
The incentives vary depending on location and the model being traded in, but for many consumers, the subsidies cover a substantial portion of a new e-bike’s price – enough to turn a “maybe next year” purchase into a “right now” upgrade. And these aren’t just budget bikes either. The program has driven demand for higher-quality models with better batteries, safer braking systems, and more reliable electronics, accelerating both adoption and innovation across the industry.
The move has proven successful in replacing the millions of older models with lower-quality lithium-ion batteries that had posed safety risks around the country. Instead, China has pushed for higher-quality lithium-ion batteries, a return to a newer generation of higher-performance AGM batteries, and even interesting new sodium-ion battery options.
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Most e-bikes in China look more like what we’d consider seated scooters
According to China’s Ministry of Commerce, more than 8.4 million consumers have participated in the e-bike trade-in program so far, contributing to a sales increase of 643.5% year-over-year and more than doubling sales month-over-month. Meanwhile, production of new electric bicycles rose by nearly 28%, as manufacturers scrambled to meet demand. The sales boosts have already been seen in the financial reports of major industry players like NIU.
And it’s not just the big players benefiting – over 82,000 small independent e-bike dealers reported average sales increases of ¥302,000 (around US $42,000), giving a serious boost to local economies.
What’s particularly striking here is how fast this happened. The program was officially launched late last year as part of a broader effort to stimulate domestic consumption and phase out outdated vehicles and appliances. But while most analysts expected gradual growth, the e-bike sector responded much more quickly. In less than a year, the trade-in subsidies have reshaped the electric bicycle market, creating a consumer-driven boom that shows no signs of slowing.
For those of us watching from outside China, it’s hard not to wonder what might happen if other countries tried something similar. While most families in Chinese cities already own an electric bike and thus see this as an opportunity to trade it in for a newer model, Western countries like the US are still figuring out how to stimulate commuters into buying their first e-bike.
It’s too soon to know exactly how long the boom will last or whether the momentum will carry into 2026 and beyond. We’ve seen bicycle industry bubbles grow and burst before. But one thing’s clear: with the right incentives, even modest ones, it’s possible to ignite real, large-scale change. China just proved it with nearly 8.5 million new e-bikes to show for it.
And if you’re wondering what it looks like when a country takes electric micromobility seriously, this is it.
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Today was the official start of racing at the Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix 2025! There was a tremendous energy (and heat) on the ground at NCM Motorsports Park as nearly a dozen teams took to the track. Currently, as of writing, Stanford is ranked #1 in the SOV (Single-Occupant Vehicle) class with 68 registered laps. However, the fastest lap so far belongs to UC Berkeley, which clocked a 4:45 on the 3.15-mile track. That’s an average speed of just under 40 mph on nothing but solar energy. Not bad!
In the MOV (Multi-Occupant Vehicle) class, Polytechnique Montréal is narrowly ahead of Appalachian State by just 4 laps. At last year’s formula sun race, Polytechnique Montréal took first place overall in this class, and the team hopes to repeat that success. It’s still too early for prediction though, and anything can happen between now and the final day of racing on Saturday.
Congrats to the teams that made it on track today. We look forward to seeing even more out there tomorrow. In the meantime, here are some shots from today via the event’s wonderful photographer Cora Kennedy.
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The numbers are in and they are all bad for Tesla fans – the company sold just 5,000 Cybertruck models in Q4 of 2025, and built some 30% more “other” vehicles than it delivered. It just gets worse and worse, on today’s tension-building episode of Quick Charge!
We’ve also got day 1 coverage of the 2025 Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix, reports that the Tesla Optimus program is in chaos after its chief engineer jumps ship, and a look ahead at the fresh new Hyundai IONIQ 2 set to bow early next year, thanks to some battery specs from the Kia EV2.
New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.
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