i came accross nicewheels, which is based in manhattan and sells ezee bikes, their prices are, ezee liv works out at £633 as against £695 here, which could easily be explained by taxes etc. but the quando is only £633 against £845 here, around 33% extra, and the torq which is the new model as well, is just £901, we would have to pay around 38% extra at £1245. prices were worked out at todays exchange rate of £1=$2.0511.
ezee prices in usa
- Thread starter fishingpaul
- Start date
And if you bought from Nycewheels, the bikes would cost about the same on arrival here. 
These price differences are true for all products, not just e-bikes, and what's more the warranties in the litigious USA are very much longer. In some cases Sony give five years warranty on items that only get one year here.
This has long been called rip-off Britain, but much of the difference is explained by the very competitive US market, differences in shipping costs and import taxes and VAT. Don't forget that US customers have to pay their sales tax as well, the equivalent of our Council Tax but charged on purchases rather than as a separate local tax.
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These price differences are true for all products, not just e-bikes, and what's more the warranties in the litigious USA are very much longer. In some cases Sony give five years warranty on items that only get one year here.
This has long been called rip-off Britain, but much of the difference is explained by the very competitive US market, differences in shipping costs and import taxes and VAT. Don't forget that US customers have to pay their sales tax as well, the equivalent of our Council Tax but charged on purchases rather than as a separate local tax.
.
what i cannot understand is, the liv costs only
£60 pounds more over here, but the quando, which is the same price in america, costs an extra £210 here.also the bikes are all available £49 cheaper with nimh batterys in america.and prices are quoted for either version,unlike here where they seem to be pushing lithium,despite the known problems.i emailed 50 cycles on monday, about a price for a quando with nimh battery, and still have not even had a reply, are they to busy counting there cash lol.
£60 pounds more over here, but the quando, which is the same price in america, costs an extra £210 here.also the bikes are all available £49 cheaper with nimh batterys in america.and prices are quoted for either version,unlike here where they seem to be pushing lithium,despite the known problems.i emailed 50 cycles on monday, about a price for a quando with nimh battery, and still have not even had a reply, are they to busy counting there cash lol.
I think we have to give suppliers the leeway to fix prices according to the market. They have to operate with the realities, not as charitable institutions looking for equitable situations.
The Quando is a popular bike with good demand in the UK, so it can support a markup in accordance with that demand. the same goes for the popular Torq. At the same time, 50cycles need to compete in the fiercely competitive budget market where margins are small, so the Liv has to be very competitively priced.
Overall, like any business, I'm sure they aim to create a viable whole which can be sustained, and how the margins are apportioned is determined by the marketplace through customer demand.
Ipods aren't cheap, but there are many other players just as good that are, again prices set by the market demand.
One the battery comment, the US market has finally responded to the complaints about Li-ion in re-introducing NiMh for all models, something that needs to happen here immediately. The fifty pounds difference is the same here in the UK.
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The Quando is a popular bike with good demand in the UK, so it can support a markup in accordance with that demand. the same goes for the popular Torq. At the same time, 50cycles need to compete in the fiercely competitive budget market where margins are small, so the Liv has to be very competitively priced.
Overall, like any business, I'm sure they aim to create a viable whole which can be sustained, and how the margins are apportioned is determined by the marketplace through customer demand.
Ipods aren't cheap, but there are many other players just as good that are, again prices set by the market demand.
One the battery comment, the US market has finally responded to the complaints about Li-ion in re-introducing NiMh for all models, something that needs to happen here immediately. The fifty pounds difference is the same here in the UK.
.
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I'm sure Nycewheels would be happy to ship to the UK. But the bike will be a US model, technically illegal in the UK, postage is likely to be a couple of hundred quid and there is a real possibility of having to pay import duty and VAT which will be a few more hundred quid. It may be cheaper to fetch it yourself and pay excess baggage charges for the flight.
I buy stuff from the N. America on a fairly regular basis and it's easy to forget how much you have to pay in the way of extras. Shipping for a bike is likely to be around $150 to $200, then you'll get hit for VAT and import duty on the total shipment cost (including the shipping charges) and finally you'll pay a handling fee to the shipper for doing the VAT, duty etc of around £15.
Here's a relevant example for some stuff I'm having shipped from ebikes.ca in Vancouver.
405 hub motor built in to 20" wheel - CAD$255 (£129.07)
35A controller - CAD$170 (£86.04)
Thumb throttle - CAD$12 (£6.07)
TNT shipping - CAD$106
Total paid so far - CAD$543 (about £274.84 at today's rate)
On top of this I'm expecting to pay an additional £48.10 VAT, about £28 duty and about £15 shippers handling fee, bringing the total cost to about £366.
This is still reasonably good value, as the best UK price I could get would have come to about £50 more and would oddly have taken longer to arrive.
So, goods costing CAD$437 (about £221.24) will end up costing me about an extra £145 by the time they get here. A reasonable rule of thumb for big stuff is to just assume that the dollar price is pounds, the result is close enough much of the time!
Jeremy
Here's a relevant example for some stuff I'm having shipped from ebikes.ca in Vancouver.
405 hub motor built in to 20" wheel - CAD$255 (£129.07)
35A controller - CAD$170 (£86.04)
Thumb throttle - CAD$12 (£6.07)
TNT shipping - CAD$106
Total paid so far - CAD$543 (about £274.84 at today's rate)
On top of this I'm expecting to pay an additional £48.10 VAT, about £28 duty and about £15 shippers handling fee, bringing the total cost to about £366.
This is still reasonably good value, as the best UK price I could get would have come to about £50 more and would oddly have taken longer to arrive.
So, goods costing CAD$437 (about £221.24) will end up costing me about an extra £145 by the time they get here. A reasonable rule of thumb for big stuff is to just assume that the dollar price is pounds, the result is close enough much of the time!
Jeremy
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