Bicycle sharing systems have proven their value towards urban sustainable mobility. Appropriate design of bikes for this application is fundamental for bike-sharing systems viability. A new e.Bike was designed for the specific application of bike-sharing. This bike model has a significant number of new features that improve the user experience through an adequate position of motor, as well as the addition of new functions such as the locking of the bike and rider safety. At the same time the reduction of number of parts and the use of new materials, contribute to the viability of this e.Bike model and the associated bikesharing system.

Urban and suburban centers rely upon their transportation infrastructure for the well-being of their population, assuring their mobility. This mobility can be directly related to a sustainable urban development, due to the economic, social and environmental impacts that it has over the population. 1. Many analyses on the social, economic and environmental costs and impacts of urban expansion have concentrated on the "invasive" nature of the automobile, consequence of their high flexibility on providing access to the increasingly dispersed urban functions. There is a persuasive picture in the urban lifestyle mindset in which the car is an essential element, thus contributing towards increase of traffic congestion and mobility reduction 2. These factors lead to an increasingly high amount of circulating cars, as expressed in Figure 1 for the European Union, which is detrimental to a sustainable urban development. Based on what was presented, public transportation represents a solution for both a sustainable urban development and a reduction of traffic congestion, as it means a decrease on the number of circulating cars, once those people change of attitude will make them leave their cars at home. This change of attitude is somehow expected. People are becoming more environmentally aware and providing a clean mean of public transportation will persuade people to use it more often and thus contributing to an overall traffic reduction and consequently to a cleaner environment within cities and an overall energy consumption reduction.

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The increasing trend for electric mobility adoption brings new challenges to the automotive industry, requiring a new approach to the manufacture processes, materials adopted and adaptation the market needs. The conventional technologies used to manufacture automotive parts imply significant overhead costs (tooling, assembly, etc.) which can only be justified by large series. The need of light and cost effective materials was the driving force of this study, acknowledging that the growth of the electric vehicles market will be driven by price. The study aims to deliver a hybrid design material solution that would offer quality and security to the vehicle, affordable to everyone, developing engineered solutions in terms of design and production process.

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