The e-bike: a short history.

The first patents (1890s)

Wikipedia, seen only as a search summary, says that Ogden Bolton Jr. received US patent 552,271 in 1895 for a battery-powered bicycle with a motor in the rear hub. We did not open the patent itself, so these details are unconfirmed. The same summary attributes other US patents for powered bicycles in the 1890s to Hosea W. Libbey (1897, with the motor in the crank axle), Mathew J. Steffens (1898, belt drive) and John Schnepf (1899, a friction roller), also unconfirmed.

Yamaha's Power Assist System (1988 to 1993)

The modern pedal-assist bicycle has a clearer record. Yamaha Motor's own history says the company began developing a battery and motor system to help with pedalling in April 1988, building on research in the 1970s into bicycles with small engines.

Asking the regulators first

In August 1990, Yamaha says, it approached Japan's Ministry of Transport and National Police Agency. The officials accepted the product as an extension of an ordinary bicycle, which meant riders would need no licence and no helmet.

Launch

Yamaha's history gives the launch dates. It unveiled the PAS, short for Power Assist System, on 27 July 1993, began limited sales on 1 November 1993 in Kanagawa, Shizuoka and Hyogo prefectures, and made its first deliveries on 5 November 1993. The PAS used a control system that matched the motor's help to the force the rider put into the pedals. A search summary of Yamaha's technology pages lists a torque sensor, a speed sensor and a computer controller; we could not confirm that list.

The dates are not quite settled:

• Yamaha's history page gives the unveiling as 27 July 1993.
• A search summary of another Yamaha page reads as 27 July 1990, which appears to mix up the 1990 approach to the regulators with the 1993 unveiling. Unconfirmed.
• Search summaries also say nationwide sales began in April 1994. Unconfirmed.

"The world's first"?

A Japanese government publication of February 2026, seen only as a search summary because the page refused our request, calls the PAS the world's first mass-produced electrically power-assisted bicycle. That is Japan's and Yamaha's claim, not an independent finding.

The United States defines the product (2002)

US Public Law 107-319, approved on 4 December 2002, added Section 38 to the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 2085). It made "low-speed electric bicycles" consumer products and defined them as having:

• two or three wheels;
• fully operable pedals;
• a motor of less than 750 W;
• a top speed under 20 mph on motor power alone, with a rider of 170 lb.

The law says its consumer product rules override stricter state requirements for these products. It defines the product for consumer safety purposes; how e-bikes may be ridden is a matter of state law, which is covered on e-bike classes and laws. A search summary says the Consumer Product Safety Commission amended its bicycle requirements (16 CFR part 1512) to match the statute, with effect on publication on 12 February 2003; we could not confirm it.

The European Union's 25 km/h line

Search summaries of a presentation by DEKRA and of industry material, none confirmed against EU law itself, say that Directive 2002/24/EC excluded pedal-assisted cycles with motors of up to 0.25 kW that cut out at 25 km/h from motor-vehicle type approval, and that Regulation (EU) No 168/2013 replaced the directive and kept the same exclusion. The UK Department for Transport, in a consultation of November 2014, describes electrically assisted pedal cycles as classified in Article 2(h) of Regulation 168/2013 as a category exempt from type or individual approval, and gives the EU limits as 250 W and 25 km/h.

When the regulation became mandatory is given two ways:

• The DEKRA presentation, seen only as a search summary and unconfirmed, says the old directive stayed in use for existing types until 31 December 2017, and the regulation was mandatory for all types from 1 January 2018.
• The UK Department for Transport, in the same 2014 consultation, said the regulation would be a requirement for new vehicles from January 2016.

The Department's date is for new vehicles and DEKRA's later date for all types, so the two may describe different stages.

E-bikes at the world championships (2019)

The UCI records that e-mountain bike cross-country made its world championship debut at Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada, in 2019.

At a glance

Battery fire safety for e-bikes today is on e-bike batteries and fire safety, and the dates above are in the timeline.