Nonsense. Ebikes haven't taken off in the UK simply because we're not a cycling nation. On the continent where government policy tends to be much more cycle friendly, ebike sales are gaining a larger market share year after year.
Surprising how quick these Brexit price rises have happened
- Thread starter Kudoscycles
- Start date
We may not be a cycling nation, but cycling has got big in this country. Mountain bikes, hybrids, road bikes..... in any given week i see hundreds of them.
I might see an ebike once every month or two..... and i believe that is because of how expensive they are.
You may think that you see a lot of bikes in the UK, but they're only a tiny fraction of those in other parts of Europe. This is due to the type of cyclist we tend to have in the UK. We are largely sporting & thrillseeker cyclists, but utility is where the real money is...
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I completely agree with you there, but not because of prices. When you look at the lower end of the market, it is almost impossible to beat the ready made offerings on VFM.
Oh, i only 'think' i see them do i ?You may think that you see a lot of bikes in the UK, but they're only a tiny fraction of those in other parts of Europe. This is due to the type of cyclist we tend to have in the UK. We are largely sporting & thrillseeker cyclists, but utility is where the real money is...
Ok then, i must have imagined them.
When was the last time you saw a scene like in the photo posted above in the UK? I never have.
First of all Kudos has not raised its prices,yet, although it was tempting to follow the crowd.
E-bikes haven't been around that long,Wisper was one of the pioneers,I think going 11 years now.
What does make e-bikes dearer in the UK is the fact that customers often want to buy from a local dealer,that dealer has to make a profit,in the UK it is very expensive to maintain high street shops,probably double the cost of shops in Germany and Holland,business rates are a killer.
There has been a boom in sports bike riding in the UK but as these riders get older they find the need for assisted cycling. But this takes time,Germany and Holland have gone through that time cycle,we are still at the start.
We are not historically a cycling nation,surprising how successful we are in the Olympics and Tour de France and our infrastructure to accommodate cyclists has been done on the cheap and badly,in Germany the cycle tracks are isolated from the vehicles and are wonderful.
These are some of the reasons why e-bikes are sold less in the UK. I don't think it is about price,there is a choice of price levels to suit all budgets,our prices tend to be less than say Germany.
You can't compare the cost of an e-bike to a non assisted bike,the battery is still an expensive component,even the cheapest suppliers have an electrical parts cost of £250.
My personal opinion is that vat adversely affects the cost of e-bikes,the £200 vat element of a £1k bike puts the bike at exactly the wrong point of the price level....by that I mean that £20 on a £100 item can be ignored,£2000 on a £20k car is dialled into the long term finance,but the bike sits to jump in price where £200 seems out of proportion to the product.
KudosDave
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You say it was tempting to follow the crowd..... I wonder how many dealers have seen other dealers raise prices and thought.... We'll have a slice of that action..... thinking that they can cash in like they think those others have.
Also some businesses may have negotiated better deals from their suppliers, but have still raised prices with Brexit as the excuse.
But they're obviously not going to admit that are they.
I have the luxury of having stocks bought at a favourable currency rate,some suppliers live 'more hand to mouth'
With regard to buying prices,the Chinese are pretty consistent with buying prices,the electrical element is very competively priced and the assembly costs pretty similar. My experience is that better deals can only be achieved by a drop in quality,but the price difference is very small,it's not worth the warranty hassle of dropping quality. The choice of which supplier to use is more about bike style,quality and type than price,some are good at folders,some are good at mountain style,some are good at urban bikes.
I tried bringing over the real Chinese cheapies with cheap batteries and direct drive motors,these could sell for £300 in the UK,provided I didn't have any post sales responsibilities,warranty is a word that doesn't exist in China,hehe !!!
KudosDave
Go into the bike park by any Dutch railway station there you will see real numbers of bikes,they have had to double stack them to get them all in,it's actually a parking problem.
What you see in the UK is a tiny number relative to Europe.
KudosDave
The Netherlands and Germany prove that's not true. There they have always cycled extensively but have also taken to pedelecs in a very big way. In The Netherlands about 1 in 8 bikes sold are pedelecs. Not only that, the pedelecs they buy are at the expensive end, being mainly European makes. In Britain e-bikes are 1 in 100 bikes sold, a high proportion of those are e-bikes at the cheap end.
Price clearly isn't putting the Dutch and Germans off. The reason they've taken to pedelecs so much is as Daniel says, they are already cycling nations and use their bikes for utility purposes.
Britain's problem is twofold, firstly we are not a cycling nation, second is the attitude that cycling is mainly a sporting and fitness support. The latter is illustrated by the frenetic way Britons cycle, not for them the sit-upright slow to moderate speeds of the Dutch. That does no favours for legal pedelecs, since they are not suited to that hard riding use, being mainly designed for up to 15 mph.
For pedelecs to succeed on a very large scale in Britain needs Britons to change, not prices, since we already have and have always had very low cost e-bikes.
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I wasn't comparing bikes in this country to other countries......
I can sometimes go months without seeing another ebike, yet in that time i will have seen many hundreds of push bikes.
I believe the slow take up of ebikes is because of how expensive they are..... and these Brexit price rises aren't going to help that.
You're missing the point and it's leading you to compare apples with oranges.
How many cars did you see in that time?
I find some of the comments here absolutely amazing. Do these guys really not understand very basic maths? The post Brexit £ has fallen by 10% no one denies this. Nearly all electric bikes and bike components are bought in $ even if they end up on bikes priced in €. Therefore the cost to manufacture or import electric bikes is now 10% more expensive than it was pre Brexit. This is a fact.
Some like Cube immediately increased all prices by 10% plus. Others like Raleigh increased prices by 10% in August. Others like Wisper are taking a 10% hit on all bikes imported between Brexit and 1st September. In fact we are keeping prices at pre Brexit on all bikes ordered by our dealers before 1st Sept, so we will take a 10% hit on about £400,000 worth of bikes at cost. We are a small company and the £40,000 we have paid to keep prices low during this summer is a huge sacrifice.
To read that we and others are profiteering by eventually having to increase prices in line with our costs is at best laughable!
Get used to it Brexit has devalued wages and pensions by 10%. We are all 10% poorer. Fact.
Not a clue!
Some like Cube immediately increased all prices by 10% plus. Others like Raleigh increased prices by 10% in August. Others like Wisper are taking a 10% hit on all bikes imported between Brexit and 1st September. In fact we are keeping prices at pre Brexit on all bikes ordered by our dealers before 1st Sept, so we will take a 10% hit on about £400,000 worth of bikes at cost. We are a small company and the £40,000 we have paid to keep prices low during this summer is a huge sacrifice.
To read that we and others are profiteering by eventually having to increase prices in line with our costs is at best laughable!
Get used to it Brexit has devalued wages and pensions by 10%. We are all 10% poorer. Fact.
Not a clue!
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Not opinions or beliefs. I simply posted the facts and the associated figures of the markets. Those are so overwhelming that they are undeniable.
However I'll add this to challenge you. Why are there so few British e-bikers when during the last decade perfectly good e-bikes have been on the mass market in Britain at about £300, including one model with a lithium battery. This includes from very large chains of national retailers.
And that's not to mention all the sound e-bikes there's been and still are in the £500 to £800 area.
Clearly price isn't deterring the British from buying e-bikes. There are two reasons why they aren't. The first is the well over 90% (mainly car drivers) who don't cycle and seem unwilling to do so on any bike. The second is that so many of the 3% who do regularly cycle turn their noses up at the idea of an e-bike, foolishly thinking it cheating etc. Not opinions, truths we all know.
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