In response to Simon C's post about the growth in computing:
The market for computers was driven by the sudden widespread availability of the internet, the internet's adoption by lots of people, public bodies and businesses, and giant leaps forward in the hardware.
A more different situation to ebikes it would be impossible to imagine.
Growth in use is glacially slow and significant advances in technology are even slower,
Ebikes have been in and out of Halfords for years, and I think this is the third attempt by Evans to sell them.
Manufacturing cost for that Yamaha battery and is probably sub £200 including cells and electronics.
That leaves a kings ransome of a margin for the manufacturer, Distributor and Retailer alike, nice business if you can get it.
It's all about to change though, as battery cell production is ramped up by an order of magnitude never seen before, the current Panasonic cell is to be replaced by a higher density unit, then the fun will begin.
Retailers will not loose out, as volumes will increase, just a case of profit per unit will be less, the retailers will just have to work a little harder!
A bike shop operates on a margin of 30 to 40 percent on a big ticket item such as a bicycle.
If the shop is paying best part of £500 for a Bosch battery it would need to sell the item for best part of £700, which, surprise, surprise, is what happens.
You may think that a king's ransom, but you might also agree a bike shop is not a licence to print money, without a decent margin on large items many would close.
Your prediction the battery market 'is all about to change' looks unlikely.
The new cells - if we ever see them in ebike batteries - are another incremental improvement.
If the cells are better, they will sell for more money not less.
The ebike battery market is tiny, so even if cells do drop in price a bit, all the other costs of making an ebike battery will remain relatively high.
Not to mention general upward price pressure on imported manufactured goods.
