Any relevance to e-bikes sales?

[catsnapper]

From the Guardian:

Two wheels good: scooter sales show huge rise | Money | guardian.co.uk

Alan

 

[flecc]

This is a phenomenon I've forecast a few times in here, scooters preferred to e-bikes. Many disagree on the usual grounds of having to register, licence and insure, plus the MOT, the CBT and riding test.

But of course none of that is a problem to car drivers, they are well used to all of those. Those who buy e-mopeds don't have to pay VED of course. Many of them were motorcyclists in an earlier life so are licenced for two wheels already, and all those who passed their car driving tests 11 or more years ago are pre-qualified for restricted mopeds.

Mopeds will always appeal more than e-bikes to most car drivers, partly due to their better weather protection, partly due to their more car-like speeds, partly due to not having to pedal, partly for a few due to a moped just not being a hated bicycle.

The effect of these sales is not so much a loss of potential e-bike customers to scooters, more a lost opportunity, albeit a vestigial one.
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[JuicyBike]

We've certainly noticed improved electric scooter sales last year, in line with our electeric bikes.
Typically sales are prompted by escalating motoring costs and the convenience of two wheels, but fun is also very high on the list.

 

[timidtom]

Motor scooters have the advantage of long range together with low running costs. During my working life the time came for me to move from a heavy motor bike (BMW) to a light scooter (Piaggio Hexagon 125) which did everything the BMW would do but more cheaply (and rather more slowly).
I'm back on 2 wheels - ebike - because I enjoy cycling, not because I have to get to work on time. I have a full-time unpaid job running a charity, which I can operate from home and involves a couple of trips to West Africa every year. Transport there is by vintage Mercs - unbreakable cars!
The ebike is for pure fun. I know it's good for 20+ miles but I dread having to replace the battery. Horses for courses. Two wheels good, four wheels bad, as Snowball might have said. I'm rambling again. Nurse! Bedtime!