Taizhou: A national e-bike manufacturing hub

Taizhou in East China's Zhejiang province is a national manufacturing hub for e-bikes.

Presently, the city has an annual production capacity of five million e-bikes, which accounts for 16-17 percent of the nation's total, official statistics show.

This means that one out of every six e-bikes in China is produced in Taizhou, a city that is home to over 20 e-bike brands and more than 1,000 e-bike parts manufacturers.

Lima, a local e-bike brand, is one example of the robust development of the e-bike industry in Taizhou.

It takes just 6.3 hours for Lima's super factory in the Taizhou Bay New Area to manufacture an e-bike. This is possible as companies supplying the six major parts, including motors, frames, and cables, are relocated in the same industrial park, according to Luo Hualie, deputy general manager of Lima. The factory produces two million e-bikes every year.

Established in Taizhou in 2003, Lima specializes in the R&D, manufacturing, and sales of electric scooters. In addition to its headquarters in Taizhou, the company has two other production bases in the provinces of Henan and Hebei.

Lima has more than 7,000 physical stores across the nation, with the aggregate sales volume ranking first among its competitors in Zhejiang.

In addition to being a manufacturing hub of e-bikes and parts, Taizhou is a major consumer of the vehicles.

According to Ying Hongbo, chairman of the Taizhou Association of E-bikes, an average of 300,000 to 350,000 e-bikes have been sold annually in Taizhou in recent years, and the figure is expected to hit between 800,000 to one million this year due to a new provincial regulation on e-bikes that will take effect on Jan 1, 2023.

The regulation stipulates that e-bikes that do not meet related standards cannot be operated in Zhejiang if they were registered more than seven years ago. This regulation is expected to force many riders in Taizhou, which has roughly 2.2 million registered e-bikes, to phase out their subpar e-bikes this year.