Absolutely true. Anyone with an electric bike business that invests in the forum would hope to cover costs at least. However, most importantly the forum is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in investing in an electric bike and I did one would support Pedelecs for that alone.
We enjoy joining in. None of us are in the EBike industry to make a fortune, believe me. I have spent an hour reading this entire thread with great interest and have thoroughly enjoyed the cut and thrust. It's also a great way of finding out what the market wants and an invaluable resource for learning about our business!
Occasionaly we can offer a bit of an insight but there are so many people here that know so much about the industry, it's often not necessary!
If I can offer my twopence worth to this discussion....
Regulation is coming in fast, not only do we now have to conform to EN15194 our bikes must be individually certificated by TUV or SGS etc. As yet there have not been any checks to my knowledge at point of entry into the UK. However this will happen. It's the easiest way to regulate. I sell bikes into Australia, and have had to provide certification. Bikes without the correct certification are often impounded.
We now also have to be WEEE registered. Not many of us have yet, but most are in the process. Registration costs £12,000. EN15194 costs about £3,500 per model. We have 6 models. Within the next year or so anyone providing Ebikes in the the UK will have to conform or risk losing cargo at point of entry. The costs of conforming will drive out smaller businesses, these are the guys that tend to bring in the very high powered bikes.
Speed Pedelecs will eventually be legalised in the UK. As long as they conform to European regs they will continue to come into the UK, until then I believe we will see very little action from the authorities.
I may of course be completely wrong!
All the best David
Great post David, and this really should, hopefully, serve to underline only the caution and warnings myself and others have given, about the prolific use of illegal e-bikes in public and the obvious indifference or complacency that clearly exists among large sections of this forum community over the legality issue and possible further intensive regulation.
I think as an industry man yourself, you're best placed to know how the industry is evolving and what you have posted would seem to suggest we are moving towards a more regulated industry model, and eventually I suspect e-bikes over the legal will be lumped in with electric mopeds else a new lower category will be introduced below AM, and all those e-bikes will be required to be type registered, have plates, and everything else that goes with it, if people keep pushing the boundaries. Well that is the case already, but what I mean is, the government is likely to make it more costly for businesses such as your own (and so more costly for end consumers) to put e-bikes into the marketplace and for owners to ride them. The easiest way to regulate this market, would be the government to introduce a form of compliant test at the point of import and/or presale. That is, all bikes would have to be "type approved" automatically to say "yes that's road legal" or "that falls under type AM, moped, needs licensing". And all e-bikes (even legal ones) would have to display that type complaint sign on them in a very visual and easily trackeable way that makes it impossible for illegal bikes to be on our roads. I can see that being the end outcome if we have a major accident or the government just decides the industry has grown too large and cannot regulate itself.
The industry I think has a key role to play in making sure the marketplace and businesses take a lead in making sure people are a) well informed on what is legal and not legal b) not offering illegal bikes for use on roads, making clear they're illegal and off-road use only unless type registered as motorcycles c) pushing more legal bikes, and trying to keep that section of the market compliant so it appears self-regulation is working well and no direct government intervention over the market is needed.
Now we no longer have the BEBA I'd like to see some industry body emerge which gives badge approval to all businesses in the industry who comply with a simple "good practice charter" and that should really cover a,b,c above. Then it will be easy for consumers to spot what's legal, what's not, and which companies are providing safe, legal products.
