My panda and i moved to shanghai 3 months ago, which for me meant giving up riding my motorbikes to work everyday. My bikes have legal Jiangsu plates but only 沪A plates are allowed in Shanghai and i cannot/will not fork out the 44000 RMB necessary for the privilege of riding in one of the worst places on earth to ride a bike. So what options are left to stay on 2 wheels? Go illegal or go electric. Since i was partly buying this for my girlfiend, we went electric. (so that she can drive me home from the bar when i can't even spell my own face anymore) Here's what we got:





It cost 3300 RMB and is the "standard" spec for suped up ebikes, 800W, 48V, 20amps. It's faster than anything you'll buy at carrefour or the standard ebike shops but if you want to spend more money, all these custom shops can customise to your specs, up to 3000W motor, 84V or two banks of 48V for longer range etc...
Overall i like it enough for what it is. It's not very fast, top speed is GPS measured 47kph and acceleration isn't all that, but for running errands around the city it's very adequate. The range is ok, riding two-up we get about 35km if the tires are well inflated and i watch my throttle usage. Riding solo maybe 45km. The brakes are good (hydraulic disc brakes) and the tyres can carry enough speed through corners to scrape the kickstand.

Charging batteries is a bit of a pain. On these big modified ebikes the batteries are not removable so you better have somewhere to plug it in downstairs, which we do. Takes about 7 hours, meaning you need to rethink how and when you refuel. Coming from motorbikes, this is my biggest issue. Always having to plan ahead when and how long you are going to use it, to make sure you will have enough juice to get home. The battery gauge stays at 100% for very long, then dies away pretty quickly so just because you've made it somewhere and it says it's still got plenty, doesn't mean you'll make it back. If i'm going somewhere a bit far i usually measure my route on googlemaps first to see if i'll make it there and back. Pain in hole i know, but pushing isn't fun either.

So basically it's not my ideal form of transportation, but for shanghai i reckon it's one of the best options. Now that they have stopped selling fuel to scooters and that even sidecars with outside plates are being driven out, it's soon going be one of the last options besides buying the dreaded plate. Until they ban these as well that is...