Does charging source matter? Definition of E-Bike
First off, I have not dipped in to the E-Bike realm and have never given much thought to it before. However, reading about HPV's of one variety or another electric drive options are quite the norm it appears. That got me thinking...
Most definitions of an E-Bike are that under electric drive it can not be capable of going faster than 20-25mph (depending on local regs). There are other regulations to keep in mind also - wheel count (typically 3 or less it appears, 4 is a gray area - only localities that specify bicycles without a wheel count as being human powered with gearing etc would this perhaps apply to).
I have not seen any definition that specifies how the electricity is generated, however.
Batteries are a given. All systems implement some type of battery from which to draw the power to propel the vehicle.
How can those batteries be charged?
For example - if you took a 4 stroke engine, like from a string trimmer or leaf blower, and put an alternator on it (like a 3 phase style seen on some small wind turbine designs) to create the electricity from which to charge - is that legal? What if you bypass the battery and directly push current to the electric motor from the engine powered alternator? The device driving the vehicle is still the electric motor, is it not? You could do the same thing with solar panels - though with much less power available unless you had a ton of solar panels.