It’s interesting that Volkswagen (VW) would not include pedals on this prototype bike – the Bik.e is not available on the market right now. Maybe for reasons of space and design simplification, pedals and the cranks and cogs necessary to make them functional, were too much for the designers to integrate. After seeing VW research and development chief Ulrich Hackenberg rolling around on one in this video, one could also conclude that the intent is to take people from one stationary sitting position to another. In other words, VW decided they didn’t want their customers to break a sweat.

On the other hand, VW seems perfectly capable of developing fully functional bikes for the mass market, which makes their choice of creating a purely electric bike for the trunk of a car all the more perplexing. Its potential competition, the Lexus bicycle prototype, seems to have got it right, although it too is not available on the market - and it looks like it may never be.

It's a shame that VW's Bik.e doesn't have the added benefit of pedals. It looks like it would be good for tootling around a city. Not only is it small and light, it can be folded into a disc about the size of its wheels. After parking your car at the cheapest place possible, you could potentially ride the Bik.e to a mass transit stop and carry it on board. You could then ride it the rest of the way to work and store your little companion under your desk, plugged in to the nearest outlet – the Bik.e can be charged using a car's DC current as well as a standard AC outlet. Of course, you can never be too far from the electrical grid. Once the juice runs out, you’ll have to find a plug, or call a taxi.

The whole concept seems a bit ridiculous when viewed from the perspective of an everyday cyclist. These bikes don’t have the storage capacity many commuters are looking for in a bike, they need to be charged up about every 12.5 miles (20 kilometers) and their top speed is apparently 12.5 miles per hour (20 km/h).

It could be argued that anything that has the potential to reduce the number of kilometers traveled and amount of gasoline burned by cars is a good thing. Practically speaking, though, this e-bike seems more novelty than green innovation.