E-bikes are better for the climate than EVs

Electric bikes and scooters are making a bigger difference to global emissions than electric cars.

That might seem counter-intuitive to readers in the UK, where there is lots of attention on EVs and the infrastructure for them. It would be less of a surprise to people in countries where scooters and motorbikes play a bigger role in transport – take this Saturday evening street scene in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

China leads the way here with 201 million electric two-wheelers, most of...