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Society

China's electric bikes free to buzz after reprieve

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-12-16 23:03

HONG KONG: China backed down from a plan to reclassify large electric bicycles as motorbikes on Wednesday, a move that threatened to put the brakes on a Chinese consumer craze.

It had stirred widespread fears that more than 2,000 e-bike factories would close and millions of users would need to get licences and insurance for motorbikes.

China's Standardisation Administration said it was rethinking the idea of reclassifing. Earlier this month, it said e-bikes that weighed over 40 kg or that can go faster than 20 km per hour could be classified as electric motorbikes.

"This is good news," said an official at the China Bicycles Association. He added the industry body had lobbied the Standardisation Administration to relax the standards for e-bikes following the release of the previous document.

The association was drafting standards of e-bikes and will submit them to the government, he said, without providing a timeframe for the submission and details of the proposed standards.

The state body made the announcement on the website on Wednesday. (www.sac.gov.cn)