on Jul 2nd, 2009Electric bicycles, scooters and motorcycles at Best Buy.. oh my
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- Best Buy Electric Bike
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- Currie Electric Bikes in Best Buy
In the U.S. electric bicycles, scooters and motorcycles have been the in the realm of fanatic aficionado’s for a long time. They’ve been available either by building your own or purchase through one of the few dealers. However they won’t make much effect on greening transportation until they’re widely available and are being used widely. In some areas, notably Europe and China, electric bicycles and scooters are popular and widely available (Time, June 14, 2009, “Last year, Chinese bought 21 million e-bikes, compared with 9.4 million autos. While China now has about 25 million cars on the road, it has four times as many e-bikes.”). Indeed most of the commercial electric bicycles and scooters available in the U.S. are made in China.
The electronics retailer Best Buy recently announced plans to begin selling electric bicycles, scooters and motorcycles through selected stores. A few of their stores today are selling electric bicycles and scooters, and sales of the Enertia motorcycle (made by Brammo) will wait until at least the July 5 launch of that bike.
It’s not clear how to determine which Best Buy locations have these vehicles. A conveniently large banner at their San Carlos CA store was a clue that store had them in stock. Unfortunately a visit to this store, on a Sunday afternoon, was a little disappointing.
The bikes and scooters were easily found within the store, and had a sizable chunk of floor space for display. The selection is very good with highly regarded bicycles and scooters. They have been selling Segway scooters in some stores for nearly a year, and this store had two models. The A2B bicycle from Ultra Motors is a very ruggedly built bicycle with a great reputation. Currie has been on the market selling electric bicycles and scooters for over 10 years, and are held in high regard. Good choices all which indicates Best Buy took some care in choosing good quality products rather than simply importing a selection of cheap bikes from China.
Author: David Herron