On a bicycle meant for cruise
View(s):More Sri Lankans are switching to two wheels; there’s one kind that offers a slight boost – a pedelec bike.
“Seeing people on the road, it was sad. I wanted to do something about it,” says Sanuth Gunasekera adding, “I wanted to provide help to Sri Lankans in the current situation”. A friend of Sanuth’s who works in a video game shop had an electric bike made in India which began his curiosity.
The Pedelec Electric Bike. Pix courtesy pedelec__innovations
Interested in this mode of transport, Sanuth purchased one at the beginning of the fuel crisis, around May, at a cost of Rs325,000. “When I rode it to my office in Walasgamuwa, everyone was very taken up with it. They had never seen an electric bike. You could just accelerate, and it would move ahead.”
The type of bike Sanuth was interested in was a pedelec bike, (pedal electric cycle). This is a type of low-powered electric bicycle with a small motor, which means the rider can get by with minimum peddling. Pedelec bikes have about 7 gears and let you cruise.
“I was interested in this concept and read up on how to make an electric bike. So the first thing you need is a starter motor. I really wanted to make this in Sri Lanka. But you need the correct equipment to get it right, or else the starter motor burns out in an hour. It wouldn’t be worth it for someone to buy,” he says.
“The other problem is that right now I don’t have a production line. I import the batteries and parts separately. Importing anything is very hard to do.”
Based on the demand, Sanuth puts in pre-orders for the bike parts. Up to now Sanuth has brought down about 60 bikes, but with the dollar fluctuating, and the problems in importing parts, he says it’s not easy to do. He currently takes small orders of two, three or four bikes at a time.
“We bring down the battery, the main component. It is a lithium iron battery so we can’t bring it on a plane, it needs to be shipped. So that’s on continuous standby; we bring about 10 a month. Then when a customer orders a bike we bring down the parts. We assemble it here. Basically, we are importing aluminum and tyres.”
The bike needs to be charged for three hours. It can then go about 40km on one charge. “Mostly those on Uber Eats find this useful,” Sanuth points out. “It’s nice to see Pedelec bikes on our roads.”
“We can customise it to an extent by adding lights as per the requirement. The size is the same. It’s like a scooter bike, but you can extend the seat unlike a normal bike.”
Sanuth has other ideas too; “This bike works with a wheel that has a motor inside it. So I’m looking to bring that in, it costs about $200. My plan now is to import this, because with this you can convert any bike into an electric bike. I’ve spoken to some distributors in China – that’s the best market to tap.”
“I was one of the first people to introduce the electric bike here; now it’s sold everywhere but it costs over Rs.400,000. Not a lot of people can afford that.”
Sanuth says he makes only a small profit with most of it going towards expenses in transporting etc. He points out that the government can address people’s transportation needs by offering some concessions in the importing of electric alternatives. “The big problem here is the tax. If they can allocate a quota for importing electric bikes that would be great.”
He believes that Sri Lankans can come out of the present crisis if we work together. “Our people should understand that we are together in this crisis. We have learnt our lesson; we have to thrive together, whoever comes into power. If we are taking advantage of people and trying to make a big business out of it, we’ll never thrive. I mean, yes you can make a profit, cover your expenses, but selling at exorbitant amounts is not right. Right now we have to work together.” (NA)
Learn more at @pedelec__innovations
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