GM Looks to Build New eBike

In an expected turn of events, the largest American car producer GM announced the development and production of eBikes. Electric bikes, designed by GM engineers in Canada, are intended for city use, sport small diameter wheels and still do not have a name. Before GM puts them in production and on sale next year, the company announced a crowdsourcing campaign and challenge where all interested parties can submit their name idea. GM isn’t a douche, so it offered $10,000 for the winner of the contest with the runners-up getting $1,000 in awards. You can access the challenge here as you have up until 26th November, 10 AM Eastern, to submit your naming ideas for the new eBike.

Electric Two-Wheeled Transport From GM?

Car manufacturers from all around the world are entertaining the idea as some preliminary research suggests that worldwide eBike market will grow to 40 million by 2023. Three-fourths are actually linked with the Chinese market as eBikes are hitting all new highs in sales in the area. Nevertheless, the GM did not disclose any meaningful information about the new eBike. Yet, the photographs we have include two bike designs – a foldable bike and a compact bike. Taking into account that both feature small diameter wheels, simplistic design and a small electric motor strapped just above the central gear and pedals, one can only assume these bikes will be urban commuters. Director of General Motors Urban Mobility Solutions basically said the same in his statement.

“As an avid cyclist and urban commuter, I know how great it feels to get where I’m going easily and to show up sweat-free,” said Hannah Parish, director of General Motors Urban Mobility Solutions. “We blended electrification engineering know-how, design talents and automotive-grade testing with great minds from the bike industry to create our eBikes. Now we want to expand our thinking beyond the company walls and hear from people who like to move and have rad ideas.”

As reported by GM officials, nothing is “off the table” and this implies that GM might entertain the possibility of a sharing service based (I believe) around the new eBikes. As it looks to put them into production next year, we can expect more information on the topic in a year or so. Nothing is official as of yet, but I find it logical that someone with GMs resources, know-how, and market understanding creates a bike-sharing service. GM would compete with a number of other services the most important of which is the Lyft Bikes service. As you may be aware, two years ago, Lyft bought the largest U.S. bike sharing service - Motivate, which, apparently, dominated 80 percent of the market in the country. GM would face an uphill battle against such an impressive competition. Nevertheless, all of this is only a conjecture as it may turn out that the new GM eBikes are mainly focused on the Chinese market.

When Will You Be Able To Buy A GM Built eBike?

As the launch is planned for the first half of the next year, I am sure you will be able to buy the thing as soon as they are revealed. Apart from having electric motors, bikes will feature LED lights front and back, with rechargeable batteries. I guess via USB. If I am to let my imagination fly, I’d say a smartphone app for controlling certain aspects of the bike should be available. It would not be a Eureka moment, of course, but who knows what GM may come up with designing its eBike.

Our Name For The GM eBike

Winners of the naming competition will be announced on January 31st, 2019. I’d name it Louis. Honoring Louis Chevrolet, a man who was so into bicycles and bicycle racing. And he did some other cool stuff. Like founding Chevy.