CHINA'S increasingly affluent citizens may not all be able to afford cars just yet. But they clearly yearn for some motive power beyond that provided by their two legs. The standard bicycle, synonymous with mass transport in China, is not enough for everyone. Over the past few years electric bikes, with small motors that give a little help to the rider, have become more popular, with more than 20m made last year according to a new report, “China's Clean Revolution”. The hope of environmentalists, of course, is that mass transport powered by electricity would pump less carbon into the air than transport powered by internal combustion engines.

AP