WHAT IS THE LIGHT ELECTRIC VEHICLE ASSOCIATION?

Light Electric Vehicle Association (LEVA) Created to Pursue Common Goals and Interests

The Light Electric Vehicle (LEV) industry has organized a global trade association to develop technical standards for LEVs and promote the use of LEVs worldwide.

All component suppliers, manufacturers, dealers, distributors, assemblers, wholesalers, retailers, and interested individuals are invited to join.

Light electric vehicles are not restricted in definition but rather open in terms of weight and number of wheels.  We believe products with a single wheel up to four wheel vehicles (such as neighborhood electric vehicles) all fall within our general category.  Our goal is promote their use as an alternate form of transportation where we all share the same type of propulsion system.  [ Read More ]

Joint Corporate Membership Now Available for LEVA & ETRA Supporters!

In the past few months, ETRA has invested a great amount of work in lobbying for electric cycles. On 14 December, ETRA has explained and defended the proposal for better European regulations for electric cycles in the European Commission’s working group “motorcycles”. ETRA did this on behalf of the more than 70 companies and organizations that have subscribed to the proposal. A week earlier, ETRA attended the European Commission’s working group “machinery” to find out more about the relationship between the Machinery Directive and electric cycles...
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The Light Electric Vehicle Association (LEVA) Announces Partnership with Trade Fair Intermot for International Motorcycle, E-Scooter and E-Bicycle Exhibition

Featuring Electric Mobility!

Cologne, Germany at Koelnmesse
October 6-10, 2010

As a LEVA member you will join other members in a special section of the trade show floor where attendees will find you easily.  Plus you will have the advantage of extra help from LEVA in terms of meeting space, office assistance with a copier and fax machine, plus computer Wi-Fi access.  You will also be able to join us for LEVA hosted dinner, presentations and meetings.

 Intermot 2010 will present electrically powered two-wheelers across a significantly wider product base. The range of products runs from electric bicycles to batteries and drive system manufacturers, right through to electric scooters and electric motorcycles. This huge growth market will be presented in its entirety. As a result, Intermot will clearly stand out from other bicycle fairs and the synergy between e-scooters and e-bikes will surely gain attention.

This product segment...
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"The article by Shai Oster (Wall Street Journal 1/19/10) on “E-Yikes! Electric Bikes Terrorize the Streets of China” emphasizes that traffic fatalities have been growing as more electric bikes are on the streets. However Oster neglected to compare those numbers to fatalities caused by other vehicles. USA motor vehicle traffic fatalities are around 20 per 100,000 vehicles (40,000 annually for the 200+ million vehicles on the road) compared to 2.5 per 100,000 electric bikes in China stated in the article. The article says China has 90,000 traffic fatalities but that is for a vehicle population of around 30 million or 300 per 100,000. This higher number is understandable as car use is a recent phenomenon in China. Thus electric bikes are safer than gasoline powered vehicles on a fatality per vehicle basis.

The reason for the big difference in fatalities is electric bikes are lighter and vehicles are much heavier so have more kinetic energy to dissipate in a collision. Kinetic energy is a product of mass and velocity squared. Take EB + rider weight of 200 pounds (50 pound EB + 150 pounds for rider) and speed of 20 mph. Take car weight 4,000 pounds, with driver, and comparable speed 20 mph. Calculation shows that the kinetic energy of the car is 20 times higher than the bike with rider. Cars travel faster of course and at 30 mph car kinetic energy is 40 times higher than the EB. Thus it is understandable that car collisions will cause more damage to vehicles and passengers when compared to a much lighter bike that has much much less kinetic energy to dissipate in a collision. This is confirmed with the statistics on fatalities..."

Prepared by Frank Jamerson, Ph.D.
Naples, FL
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The Light Electric Vehicle Association (LEVA) communicates on a regular basis with over 2,600 light electric vehicle employees, advocates, and enthusiasts, plus thousands more visiting our website. If you are looking for employment, component parts or to learn more about potential new products or suppliers, check us out.

Advertising

Members can post product news releases and power point presentations for $50 USD per month; non-members can post for $100 USD per month. All carry a minimum of three months posting.

Classified

Members can post items for sale such as ebikes, inventory clearances, equipment or LEV components for $25 USD per month; non-members for $50 USD per month. If you are looking for something, the same fees apply.

LEV Help Wanted

Members only can post help wanted ads for their company. Individual members looking for work can post their resumes. Fees are $50 USD per month for Help Wanted Ads and $25 USD per month for resume postings.

What is the best way to educate people about LEVs, especially since the publics’ awareness is nearly “zero”?

Light Electric Vehicles is a broad term. It includes one, two, and three wheelers, with a wide range of configurations and uses. But the most common vehicle at this time is an electric bike.
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