'Trip-chaining' and smart-tech are factors likely to boost the number of e-bike riders.
Women – and smart technology – may hold two of the keys to the future of e-biking in New Zealand.
As a number of imminent high-tech innovations are set to transform the e-biking experience for Kiwis, researchers have discovered an interesting trend taking place along Auckland's northwestern cycleway: Over 40 per cent of e-bike riders using the route are women.
This is significant because when push-bikes are factored in, women make up just 27 per cent of riders on the cycleway and only 20 per cent of cyclists everywhere.
This suggests e-biking is likely to be a "particularly effective strategy for lifting rates of cycling among women" according to the 2018 research conducted by a team from the University of Auckland's Medical and Health Sciences faculty.
The research comes as German-based e-bike systems manufacturer Bosch is poised to introduce a number of new products - including smart tech able to provide weather reports and play music while you ride - aimed at encouraging more New Zealanders to take up e-biking.
Cameron Burke, the company's regional technical manager (Oceania), believes the innovations will make e-biking even more appealing – but he is also not surprised at the findings of the university study: "If they (e-bikes) can help more women into cycling then that would be fantastic."
The study, headed by research fellow Dr Kirsty Wild, identified so-called "trip-chaining" as one of the factors attracting women – a term referring to the ease with which e-bikes allow people to make trips with multiple stops and purposes.
It said e-bikes appear to be making active transport more realistic for women who are more likely to be juggling work and care responsibilities.
"People think it's a strength issue for women, but it's also a time and responsibility issue for them – and e-bikes really help with those," said Wild.
And in a survey conducted in the US by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities in which 1800 electric bike owners were asked what they use their e-bike for, almost 30 per cent said they did so to take the place of trips they'd otherwise do in the car.
Meanwhile Burke says new digital features soon to be available will help turn e-bikes into state-of-the-art smart machines. The new smart phone hub, for example, includes sophisticated alarms and warning bells – and will enable riders to play music, check the weather report and plan their routes.
"It will feature turn-by-turn navigation," he says. "This kind of connectivity means the days when you had to stop riding to pull out your phone to check directions are long gone.
"Riders operate it through an integrated thumb control attached to the bike meaning their hands can remain safely on the handlebar with no more smartphone juggling required."
Burke says the feature will also be useful in other ways: "You might be halfway home, perhaps going by a route you are not familiar with and you realise you need to buy milk, you can look up your closest store on your smart phone and the smart phone hub app will give directions. It's all about convenience."
In addition Bosch will be introducing an on-board computer called Kiox, which can measure heart rate, indicate riding speed and provide a summary of a day's activities among other uses.
He says around 10 per cent of all bike sales in New Zealand (annually around 230,000 are sold) are e-bikes, but he believes this percentage could grow as high as 40 per cent, the average across some countries in Europe.
Although better known in the automotive industry, Bosch began developing e-bike systems in 2009 and today more than 70 bike brands contain Bosch components worldwide. Among them is the PowerTube 625 battery that can be integrated into the frame of the bicycle making it look invisible from the outside.
Burke says Bosch, which entered the New Zealand market in 2017, sees the future of mobility as electric: "We also believe there are long-term benefits in e-biking for individual health and the environment."