Snapshot: Oh, you’re still using normal batteries? Fortunately for you - and the environment - Yamaha wants to change the sharing and management of energy in sustainable ways. How? Their electric-power assisted bicycle and the bamboo battery it powers.

The concept is built on the simple exchange of energy, physical input to electrical output. There are three components: the bicycle, the battery, and the recharge stand. To start the process, you simply notch the back tire of the bike into the recharge stand while the battery plugs right into the back. And go! It’s the most attractive stationary bike you’ll ever see, and even better, all that cycling is actually recharging the battery with each turn of the pedal. The battery is universal for DC devices, and can power electric guitars, HiFi speakers, or even a laptop.

What makes this product, from Yamaha’s Senior Product Designer Jose González, so sleek is that the battery and bicycle can then easily detach and be used separately. The bike is minimal: coated in a dull-reflecting black with road tires and saddleback leather seat and handlebars. The battery is the size of a novel, and even comes with its own leather carrying bag so you can take it anywhere with your bike. Its body is smooth, pale bamboo wood, curved on its edges, and with a brushed copper tip. This mirrors the copper joints on the bike and the copper disc which gleams against the angular black of the recharge stand. Not only is it an elegantly-crafted bicycle, but using the two in tandem promotes a lifestyle of sustainable energy and reducing waste from traditional alkaline batteries and gas-powered transportation.

Photography courtesy of Yamaha