With ENYRING launching a new infrastructure, one of our products got us especially curious: the evolution of the eBike itself. Our service brings the battery station, the battery, and the eBike together in one single app, and that made us want to know where the eBike came from and what Yamaha Motor had to do with it. Since we also benefit from their experience in bringing the modern eBike to the world, we can already spoil this much: they have quite a history with it. But first, let's rewind all the way to the start. 

Back in 1881, things got sparky 

The very first electrified two-wheeler wasn't even a bicycle; it was a tricycle. In 1881, French inventor Gustave Trouvé bolted an electric motor onto an existing lever-operated tricycle, and just like that, the world had its first electric ride. 

In December 1895, American inventor Ogden Bolton Jr. patented a battery-powered bicycle with a motor built straight into the rear wheel hub. Two years later, Hosea W. Libbey of Boston one-upped him with a "double electric motor" built into the crank axle, which looks a lot like the mid-drive motors on today's premium eBikes. 

Cool ideas, wrong century. Batteries back then were heavy, expensive, and not exactly reliable, so the whole concept disappeared for decades while combustion engines took over the roads. 

The comeback nobody saw coming 

Fast forward to the 1970s: an oil crisis has everyone rethinking how they get around, and suddenly the electric bicycle doesn't sound so crazy anymore. Motors got better, batteries got a bit less terrible (hello, nickel-cadmium), and a few brands gave it a go commercially. None of it really stuck. The eBike needed one more push, and that's where Yamaha Motor comes in. 

Enter Yamaha Motor: 1993, the year the eBike actually happened. 

Here's the spoiler we promised: Yamaha didn't just dabble in eBikes, they basically invented the modern version. In the 1980s, with growing concern over the climate and Japan's aging population, Yamaha set out to build something genuinely new: a vehicle that felt as natural to ride as a regular bike, just with a helping hand from an electric motor. 

The tricky part wasn't the motor; it was the paperwork. Starting in 1990, Yamaha spent years convincing Japan's Ministry of Transport and National Police Agency that this thing was really just a bicycle with a bit of extra help, not a licensed vehicle. It worked. In 1993, the electrically power-assisted bicycle was officially classified as, well, a bicycle. 

On 27 July 1993, Yamaha unveiled the PAS (Power Assist System), the world's first mass-produced eBike. Sales kicked off that November in three Japanese prefectures, and demand blew past supply almost instantly: 1,000 units made, way more than that were ordered. By 1994, it was available nationwide. The following year, the PAS C introduced a detachable nickel-cadmium battery managed by an early battery-management system. 

From Japan to everywhere

In the late 1990s, Yamaha started shipping power units to Europe, where they landed on locally made bikes. This is roughly when the word "eBike" itself entered everyday language internationally: Japan's invention, now with a global name. 

Where that leaves us today 

Fast forward to now: Yamaha has sold well over five million eBike power units, and the very concept born in 1993 continues to enjoy strong demand in Japan today with the same brand name "PAS", right alongside cutting-edge mid-drive systems. What began as one company's confident belief in a "bicycle with the right amount of help" is now a global industry. In Germany, eBikes outsold traditional bicycles for the third year running in 2025, taking 52.7% of the market (ZIV). In the Netherlands, 43% of cyclists now ride electric, according to a study conducted by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM/CBS). 

And that brings us to now 

Thirty years after Yamaha gave the world its first eBike, they're still very much in the game, and that same pioneering spirit is exactly what brought ENYRING to life. As eBikes have taken over cities and fleets, a new question has popped up: not "should this bike have a motor," but "how do we keep its battery charged, healthy, and ready to go?" 

That's the question we're answering. Backed by Yamaha Motor, ENYRING is bringing battery swapping to urban eBike mobility. Swap your empty battery for a fully charged one in under a minute, while we handle battery health and charging for you. The same instinct that turned a 1993 prototype into a product millions of people trust just pointed at the next problem worth solving. 

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