The 5-Hour Energy of Bikes
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When the creator of 5-hour Energy mixes with the world of biking, what would you expect to come out of the collaboration? No need to guess: The energy product company's CEO, 62-year-old Manoj Bhargava, has already created the energy-generating Free Electric, a hybrid stationary bicycle. With this bike, an hour of riding can provide enough energy to fuel a small home’s electrical needs for 24 hours. Pedaling the bike spins a flywheel, which powers the generator. This charges the battery, creating enough power for running lights, a small fan, a charging cell phone or tablet, and more.
Related: How Bikes Are Literally Saving the World
The Free Electric is made with standard bike parts, which makes it easily fixable by any mechanic around the world. The bike is cheap, clean, and practical in terms of providing energy to those who need it most on a global scale.
Bhargava plans to release 10,000 Free Electrics in India in 2016. “Our target is to begin with India, but really it can be used anywhere,” he says. “There are 1.3 billion people around the world who are still living without access to electricity.”
Bhargava says that impoverished people are the biggest target audience for the Free Electric. With electricity becoming a basic human need, the Free Electric accommodates households that are too poor to purchase or collect fuel, while creating power without generating harmful pollution. In a ripple effect, Free Electric essentially creates “better health, more leisure time, better access to education, and opportunities for entrepreneurship—it could literally change the world,” says Bhargava.
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The plan is for there to be two different versions of Free Electric: one version for rich countries, and another version for poor countries. The two versions will have different prices, which have yet to be determined. Bhargava does know that the price for the poor countries will be subsidized by sales in richer countries. He hopes to also have a program in which one bike is given away in a poor country for every bike sold in a rich country.
Bhargava’s focus on poverty and his dedication to charity stem from his upbringing. As a child, he was taught that if you have more, you should give to people who have less. However, “instead of giving money away to charities, we’re making useful things that can help people improve their lives,” says Bhargava.
Founded on the same approach as Bhargava’s 5-hour Energy, Free Electric is intended to create a straightforward solution to the clearly defined problem that people in impoverished countries work long hours and are overtired. Both products use a common mentality to provide a practical way to meet today’s fundamental need for energy.
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