On September 17, Changsha City, Hunan Province held a press conference. Public security, urban management, transportation and other departments have stated that they will work together to solve the problem of electric bicycle management.
Electric bicycles are easy to use and their number has been growing in recent years. The “China Electric Two-Wheeled Vehicle Consumption Trend Insight Report (2026)” shows that as of the end of 2025, the number of electric bicycles in society nationwide has exceeded 400 million. The relevant person in charge of the Traffic Management Detachment of the Changsha Municipal Public Security Bureau told China News Weekly that the rapid growth of electric bicycles has brought more traffic chaos caused by random parking and driving.
However, one year after the new national standards were implemented, problems such as modifications and speeding are still difficult to eliminate. The above-mentioned person in charge also said that there are still illegal modifications such as decoding speed regulation and replacing high-power batteries on electric bicycles, which has led to serious problems of excessive vehicle speed and vehicle weight.
Changsha traffic police help cyclists fasten their seat belts.
The failed “speed limit”
It is not difficult to find channels in the market that can provide modification services. Dealers, specialty stores, and repair shops can all dismantle and modify speed limiting devices for consumers.
Zhao Xiaojun, an electric bicycle dealer in Rizhao City, Shandong Province, told China News Weekly that modification is an open secret, and the threshold is very low. After replacing the motor or controller, the speed can reach 60 to 70 kilometers per hour. “China News Weekly” consulted a repair shop in Jinan City, Shandong Province in the name of a delivery rider. The staff said that depending on the controller and motor used during modification, the fee ranges from 3,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan.
Zhao Xiaojun revealed that some electric bicycles have been modified to reach a speed of 160 kilometers per hour, and the modification cost is more than 10,000 yuan. Recently, the police in Taiyuan, Shanxi destroyed an illegal modification den of electric bicycles. After modification, the electric bicycles can accelerate to more than 100 kilometers per hour within 3 seconds.
“The speed regulations of the new national standard are somewhat misaligned with the actual needs of the people.” Zhao Xiaojun said that in order to cater to consumers, some companies will violate the new national standard. For example, a consumer can ride at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour, but the instrument panel will still show a speed of 25 kilometers per hour. For another example, the factory-compliant battery configuration is 4 batteries, and if it is added to 6 batteries during modification, the speed can reach more than 40 kilometers per hour. “In fact, some companies intentionally leave space for adding six batteries when they leave the factory.”
“When we purchase goods, some manufacturers will also provide decoders so that we can modify the vehicle controller parameters and break through the vehicle speed limit.” Zhao Xiaojun said.
It is true that some companies think the speed limit regulations are unreasonable. Li Ping, the legal representative of an electric bicycle company, told China News Weekly that if the new national standards are strictly followed, the products will be difficult to sell. He revealed that some smaller companies even directly produce “exceeding standards” vehicles, which can reach a speed of 38 kilometers per hour to 45 kilometers per hour.
Zhang Tai, the head of the relevant department of a well-known domestic electric bicycle brand, told China News Weekly bluntly that in order to survive, some electric bicycle companies will reserve bugs in the factory. “Since companies can limit the speed before leaving the factory, they can naturally leave bugs behind to facilitate subsequent modifications.”
Tsinghua University professor Ma Guilong led a team to develop my country’s first electric bicycle in 1995. Therefore, Ma Guilong is known as “China’s first electric bicycle person.” In an interview with China News Weekly, Ma Guilong said that the “most stringent new national standards in history” have been implemented for more than a year, and the main reason why the results are not satisfactory is that the positioning of electric bicycles by relevant departments is still unclear.
Ma Guilong believes that the essence of electric bicycles is still bicycles. When they appeared, they did not pursue high speed or long distance, but were just short-distance low-speed transportation tools. However, in recent years, the rise of my country’s e-commerce and service industries has been closely linked to the development of electric bicycles. For delivery boys or people engaged in maintenance, installation and other service industries, electric bicycles are not just a means of transportation, but a means of livelihood. Speed and driving distance are closely related to their income, and the traffic police have limited energy and are difficult to investigate and deal with in a timely manner in the face of the huge number of electric bicycle owners. “In this context, the new national standard will inevitably become a piece of paper.”
However, illegal modification of e-bikes does carry significant risks. In April 2026, Zhejiang TV reported that Mr. Zhang took his wife to pick up their children on an electric bicycle. During the journey, the lithium battery under the car exploded, and 70% of the wife’s body was deeply burned. The medical expenses and subsequent recovery cost more than 300,000 yuan. The cause of the accident was that the car owner privately replaced a non-standard modified lithium battery with a larger capacity. The battery cell did not have a qualified protection device, and the battery suddenly overheated and lost control during driving, causing a deflagration.
On July 9, 2025, two first-year high school students in Taojiang County, Hunan Province rode a modified electric bicycle and crashed into a wall and died. Ms. Tao, a family member of the deceased, said that the vehicle had just been modified that day and could reach a speed of 100 kilometers per hour. The vehicle lost control 40 seconds after the two high school students got on the car.
The Changsha Public Security and Traffic Control Department jointly distributed 10,000 helmets to citizens for free. This map/Changsha Municipal Public Security Bureau Traffic Management Detachment provided
監管難題
In fact, even if there are provisions in the new national standards, and even if illegal modifications pose safety risks, traffic police in many places rarely involve issues such as speeding and modifications when enforcing electric bicycles. Wang Xiao, a traffic police officer in a northern city, told China News Weekly that the city’s regular investigations and punishments mainly target obvious illegal behaviors such as not wearing helmets, running red lights, and driving in the wrong direction; only during special rectifications or investigations due to a traffic accident, issues such as installing awnings, modifying controllers, removing speed limits, modifying batteries, and being overweight will be concentrated.
In fact, in recent years, many places have adopted technological means in order to implement new national standards. Taking Shanghai as an example, in order to cooperate with the implementation of the new national standards, Shanghai has enabled smart capture in key areas. Speeding, running red lights, driving in the wrong direction, and not using non-motorized lanes will be punished. A Shanghai netizen posted that he was caught by the “electronic police” for speeding while riding an electric bicycle and was fined 50 yuan.
However, judging from the situation across the country, it is rare to capture speeding through intelligent systems. Recently, Changsha traffic police exposed a number of illegal activities on electric bicycles that were captured by the “eyes in the sky”. However, the above-mentioned relevant person in charge said that Changsha’s “Sky Eye” has not captured any specific cases of speeding electric bicycles.
In the first half of 2025, Wang Xiao’s city will deploy all-in-one Thundervision machines and AI electronic eyes at some intersections. However, so far there has been no case in the city where technical means were used to film and punish speeding.
“Electric bicycles have small license plates, large speed fluctuations, mixed traffic, and difficult speed measurement and evidence collection; even if the instantaneous speed is photographed, it is often not possible to directly prove that the vehicle has been modified, or it may be due to other reasons such as sliding downhill.” Wang Xiao told China News Weekly that these technical means are mainly to assist traffic police in investigating obvious illegal behaviors such as not wearing helmets, running red lights, and driving in reverse. If you want to determine whether the vehicle meets the speed regulations of the new national standard, professional judicial appraisal is required. Traffic police generally only conduct forensic appraisals of the vehicles involved when a traffic accident occurs (injury or injury, major accident, drunk driving).
“The concept of improvement should be combined with removing blockages”
Recently, many places have introduced measures in the hope of rectifying the chaos of electric bicycle modification, such as clarifying penalties for modification stores. Starting from September 15 this year, Shanxi officially implemented the “Shanxi Provincial Electric Bicycle Management Regulations”, which clearly prohibits commercial modifications. Merchants engaged in modification business may face a fine of up to 50,000 yuan.
Many places also solicit tips from the public for reporting. On August 13, the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Tengzhou City, Shandong Province issued an announcement stating that from now until December 31, 2026, it will accept reports on illegal modifications of electric bicycles in sales stores, unauthorized changes to vehicle structures, battery modifications, speed increases, and replacement of high-power motors.
The “Beijing Measures for Rewards for Reporting Illegal Acts in the Field of Market Supervision” that will be implemented on October 1 this year stipulates that for those who report violations of the prohibitive provisions of the “Beijing Non-Motor Vehicle Management Regulations” and engage in commercial modifications and installations of electric bicycles or sales of illegal modifications and installations of electric bicycles, a reward of 200 to 500 yuan will be given if it is verified to be true.
However, many interviewees believed that the rectification of such illegal modifications should actually pay more attention to the source rectification. Ma Guilong believes that relevant departments should pay attention to source management from the perspective of enterprises, rather than deploying too many police forces to investigate and deal with e-bike cyclists. “This can not only reduce law enforcement costs, but also facilitate the implementation of national standards.” However, Zhao Xiaojun believes that the reason why they rarely investigate and deal with the source companies is actually the mentality that the law does not hold the public accountable. In addition, they believe that the new national standards are difficult to implement, so some regulatory authorities “turn a blind eye” to related issues of companies.
As the main user group of electric bicycles, delivery riders have a common speeding problem. Many riders said that if they follow the new national standard speed, it will be difficult to complete delivery on time and their income will be affected, so they have to modify to speed up. Zheng Xiang, a researcher at the national high-end think tank of the Sustainable Transportation Innovation Center, said that the core of timeliness management and control lies in optimizing the platform algorithm to eliminate the squeeze on the rights and interests of riders, and can promote humanized mechanisms such as “red light stopwatch” trialled in Wuxi and other places.
“In addition, instead of focusing on investigation and punishment, we should think more about how to work on dredging.” Ma Guilong mentioned the rectification of express delivery electric tricycles and believed that the rectification effect was very ideal and worthy of reference for electric bicycles.
He believes that in the future, a specialized electric two-wheeler model can be developed and industry standards can be formulated. This model will be specially targeted at delivery workers or service industry personnel engaged in maintenance, service, etc. The voltage can reach 72 volts and the speed can reach 35 kilometers per hour. Relevant personnel must drive with a license and purchase insurance. For office workers who commute far away from get off work, they can also use low-speed two-wheeled tool vehicles.
Yang Xinmiao, deputy director of the Transportation Research Institute of Tsinghua University, also emphasized to China News Weekly that to solve the speeding chaos of electric bicycles, it is not advisable to adopt a “one-size-fits-all” governance approach. He suggested that different governance plans should be formulated according to different types of electric bicycles. Through this differentiated treatment, electric bicycles are guided to return to their “bicycle attributes”.
Yang Xinmiao introduced that electric bicycles are divided into electric-driven bicycles and electric-assisted bicycles. The design of the former is more motorized, and the electric energy comes from the on-board battery and relies entirely on the electric motor to output power; the latter uses human power and electric motors to output power in proportion, requires pedaling, and the motor only provides assistance, making the ride closer to the feeling of a traditional bicycle. At present, in the domestic market, electric-driven bicycles are still the absolute mainstream. Due to the direct drive of the motor, electric-driven bicycles start and increase speed quickly, leaving the rider relatively limited time to judge and brake in an emergency, which easily increases safety risks. Electrically assisted bicycles usually sense the rider’s pedaling force through a torque sensor and provide matching electric assistance accordingly. The acceleration process is relatively gentle and safe.
Under the new national standard, the top speed of electric-driven bicycles and electric-assisted bicycles is limited to 25 kilometers per hour. Yang Xinmiao believes that domestic consumers should be encouraged and guided to understand and try to use electric-assisted bicycles. Mandatory national standards can be used to manage electric drive electric bicycles, and recommended national standards can be used to manage electric power-assisted bicycles. “There is almost no need for additional management of electric-assisted bicycles, which can save a lot of management resources. If most of the bicycles on the road are electric-assisted bicycles, a series of safety problems caused by electric-driven electric bicycles may be fundamentally solved.” Yang Xinmiao said.
In addition, many interviewees also mentioned that the current road traffic safety law stipulates that when electric bicycles are traveling in non-motorized lanes, the maximum speed shall not exceed 15 kilometers per hour. This regulation has not changed since it was implemented in May 2004.
Yang Xinmiao told China News Weekly that if the speed is limited to 15 kilometers per hour, the actual average speed is only about 12 kilometers per hour, which is slower than a human-powered bicycle and conflicts with the common sense of the public. On August 25 this year, the 24th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress reviewed the draft revision of the Road Traffic Safety Law for the first time, and planned to increase the above-mentioned speed to 20 kilometers per hour.
However, Ma Guilong believes that for groups such as delivery workers, this speed increase cannot meet their actual needs, and phenomena such as modifications and speeding will inevitably continue to occur. “Now is the time when users of electric bicycles must be classified and treated. If this is not considered, no matter how many national standards are issued in the future, it will be difficult to implement them.” Ma Guilong said.
(Zhao Xiaojun, Li Ping, Zhang Tai and Wang Xiao are pseudonyms)
Reporter: Zhou Qunfeng (zhouqunfenghaoren@163.com)
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