【聯合報╱By DANNY HAKIM╱陳世欽譯】
BERLIN – With a faint electric whir, Iris Marossek pedals her bicycle through concrete apartment blocks in the heart of old East Berlin, delivering mail to 1,500 people a day.
艾莉絲．馬洛塞克騎著微微作響的電單車，穿梭在舊東柏林市區公寓大樓之間，每天為1500人遞送郵件。
Her bicycle is a nod to both past and future. It is decorated with an image of a curving black horn, harking back to earlier centuries when German postal workers trumpeted their arrival. But the twin battery packs under her seat also reveal it is more than the average bike.
她的單車結合過去與未來：配備曲線黑色喇叭，使人想前幾個世紀德國郵差宣告自己到來的歲月。座位下雙電池包則說明它不是一般單車。
Ms. Marossek rides one of the 6,200 e-bikes in service for Deutsche Post, the German mail service. E-bikes use electric motors to make them easier to pedal and have been gaining popularity in bike-loving countries like Germany, appealing to older people, delivery businesses and commuters who don’t want to sweat.
德國郵政總局有6200輛電單車，馬洛塞克騎的是其中之一。它使用電動馬達，騎起來更輕鬆，在德國等瘋單車的國家日益普及，吸引老人、快遞業者與不想流汗的通勤族。
“They are really nice and they are only getting better,” Ms. Marossek said. “You’re not as exhausted as you would be with a regular bike.”
她說：「它真的很好，而且只會越來越好。不像騎一般單車那麼累人。」
With the market evolving quickly, a plethora of manufacturers are competing. Daimler’s Smart brand is offering zero percent financing on its $3,000 e-bike in Britain, while BMW introduced its own e-bike for about $3,600 this year.
市場演化快速，已經有過多廠商展開競爭。戴姆勒汽車公司旗下的Smart品牌在英國推出售價3000美元的電單車，提供零利率貸款。BMW汽車公司今年則推出售價約3600美元的電單車。
In Germany, the postal service tends to use them for steeper or longer routes. They also ease the burden for an aging work force. “We noticed that our employees weren’t getting any younger, and we wondered how we could relieve them,” said Frank Kolaczinsky, Ms. Marossek’s boss.
在德國，郵局傾向於針對比較陡峭或比較長的路線使用電單車。它還可以減輕逐漸老化的員工的工作負擔。馬洛塞克的上司柯拉辛斯基說：「我們注意到員工年事日長，開始思索如何減輕他們的工作負荷。」
With tens of millions of e-bikes already on the road in China, e-bike sales are now surging in Europe, especially in northern countries with long cycling traditions. There are 250,000 on the road in Switzerland, according to the European Cyclists’ Federation. In Germany, bike sales were down 5.5 percent last year, but sales of e-bikes were up almost 8 percent and now command about 11 percent of the market. In the Netherlands, which has Europe’s highest per capita bicycle usage, the overall bike market fell slightly last year, but e-bike sales rose more than 9 percent.
中國大陸使用中的電單車已達數千萬輛。電單車在歐洲的銷路也已大幅增加，尤其是擁有悠久騎單車傳統的北歐國家。歐洲單車騎士聯盟說，瑞士有25萬輛。在德國，去年的單車銷量減少5.5%，電單車卻增加近8%，目前在單車市場的占有率約11%。荷蘭的人均單車使用率是全歐洲之冠，去年單車市場微幅衰退，電單車銷量卻增加逾9%。
Noel Regan, 35, bought a Velo de Ville e-bike about a year ago. He is an Irishman who works for an energy industry association in Brussels. “I have a regular bike,” he said. “But I wanted something I could commute to work in so I wasn’t hot and sweaty when I arrived.”
35歲的芮根約一年前以4000美元左右買了一輛Velo de Ville電單車。他是愛爾蘭人，在布魯塞爾為某能源產業協會工作。他說：「我有輛普通單車。然而我希望能另有一輛通勤單車，讓我到辦公室時不會熱得難受又汗流浹背。」
Others see e-bikes as a way to avoid car traffic. David Stellini recently bought one. He works at the European People’s Party in Brussels, and has been commuting to work by car. A recent traffic snarl during a visit by President Obama pushed Mr. Stellini, 37, to act. Getting to work “took me two hours or more, two-and-a-half hours, and I live 20 minutes from the Parliament,” he said.
另有些人把電單車當成避開塞車的工具。史迪里尼最近買了一輛。他在布魯塞爾的歐洲人民黨黨部工作，此前開車通勤。美國總統歐巴馬最近訪問布魯塞爾，市區交通為之打結，促使37歲的史迪里尼決定採取行動。他說，通勤上班「花了我至少2個小時或2個半小時。我的住處離國會只有20分鐘車程」。
Hotels like the Hotel New York in Rotterdam rent out small fleets of e-bikes. At Au Guidon Vert, a small bike shop in Brussels, the owner, Nicolas De Keghel, said e-bikes account for one in four sales and half of his income.
包括紐約飯店在內的鹿特丹飯店業者備有一些電單車出租。在布魯塞爾經營奧吉登福特單車店的迪科吉爾說，電單車占店內單車銷量1/4，收入的一半。
In Europe, e-bikes are the latest sign of divergence between north and south. The industry has not taken off in countries like Italy and Spain, while in France, e-bike sales rose more than 17 percent last year, but off a low base; sales totaled 56,000 e-bikes, compared with 410,000 sold in Germany.
在歐洲，電單車是南北分歧的最新象徵。這個行業並未在義大利、西班牙等地起飛，法國去年銷量則增加逾17%，然而市場相對仍小，總共只賣出5.6萬輛，遠不及德國的41萬輛。
“To imagine going into Italy and establishing an e-bike sector, apart from one or two wealthy cities like Milan, you’re really going to struggle,” said Kevin Mayne of the cyclists’ federation. “In the Netherlands, in Germany, people are used to paying 600, 700, 800 euros for a daily bicycle. In a lot of other countries a daily bicycle might be a ?100 bicycle from a supermarket,” he said.
歐洲單車騎士聯盟的梅尼說：「試想前往義大利建立電動單車產業，除了在米蘭這樣的一兩個富裕城市外，都會陷入困境。在荷蘭與德國，人們習慣以六百、七百或八百歐元買單車。在其他國家，超市單車可能只賣一百歐元。」
The e-bike Ms. Marossek uses for the postal service has a throttle, unlike most e-bikes that are sold at the retail level, but its top speed is capped at about 21 kilometers an hour.
有別於多數零售款，馬洛塞克的單車配備油門，最高時速則設定在21公里。
Not that there aren’t drawbacks to e-bikes. She smiled broadly while astride hers. “This bike isn’t as good for my figure.”
電動單車也不是沒有缺點。她坐在單車上笑著說：「它對我維持身材，可就沒那麼好了。」
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