Funny, when I first met Magna Marque CEO Fred Gingl, he told me one of the bikes was sent to California Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger, a fellow Austrian along with Magna International founder Frank Stronach. Guess Arnie liked them. It will be interesting to see how electric bikes, a much more delicate and expensive product than a typical barebones bike, will be introduced to the bikeshare model. I expect campus environments will be the first market, as these bikes go through tremendous abuse in citywide bikeshare programs.

Aurora, Ont.-based Magna, of course, isn’t doing very well with its traditional business. It saw sales plummet 45 per cent in its most recent quarter, reported yesterday, and swung to a $205 million loss. The company, however, is gradually positioning itself as a leading supplier of drive trains and other components for the emerging electric car market, and has a partnership with Ford and other players to follow through with that vision. But Gingl’s view is that the e-bike opportunity will come faster than the electric car market, and the two nicely complement each other. Magna Marque can leverage battery and motor development taking place for the electric-car side of Magna’s business, giving it an edge over other competitors in the e-bike market.

The BionX system itself is, in my own view, quite impressive. I currently have a demo bike at home and enjoy the ride immensely. It takes some getting used to — i.e. the electric boost it sometimes provides, depending on your speed, can cause a mild jolt like a car going into passing gear. It might bother some people, but I actually like it. I rode 30 minutes home from work yesterday in jeans and in dress shoes, carrying a shopping bag in one hand, and easily tackled a head wind and hills averaging 30 kilometres an hour. Though I should emphasize this is no free ride — you have to peddle to trigger the electric-assist. It’s just that you do it more evenly and consistently than you might otherwise have to when approaching hills and wind. There’s an override that can put it into all-electric mode temporarily, but generally the idea around this kind of e-bike is that you still get the exercise but without the bursts of effort needed to tackle uneven terrain and forces of nature. I can see this being a hit with boomers, but younger folks will also see it as a way to make urban commuting by bicycle less intimidating.

I should also add that when you use the back brake it immediately goes into regenerative mode, charging the lithium-ion battery pack by capturing braking energy. You can also set the control so that it captures energy when you’re going downhill or riding with a tail wind or simply want the added resistance for the purpose of exercising.

Now, these things aren’t cheap. They range from $1,200 to $1,700 depending on battery power. And that’s without the bike. This is a kit, remember — a system than can either be retrofitted onto your existing bike or purchased as part of a package from a company such as Trek (in that case, you’ll likely pay more).

All in all, it’s encouraging to see a Canadian manufacturing gem like Magna taking this high-growth market seriously. It’s not going to replace lost auto-sector jobs and revenues, but when the auto sector rebounds the e-bike side of the business will certainly be a nice complement. Already, it has created 90 or so new jobs in the last year. And with Magna’s brand behind it, it will certainly raise awareness of e-bikes and their importance as we transition our transportation infrastructure away from congestion and pollution and toward free-flowing and emission-free.

By the way, as you’ll read in the story, Magna is developing an e-bike racking system that can be rolled out as part of a package to cities, resorts, gated communities, etc… that want to expand the bike-share concept seen in Paris and Montreal to electric bikes.