E-bike Penetration in Denmark

[Tiberius]

I'm in Copenhagen this week. Cycle paths everywhere and thousands of bikes, but so far I haven't seen a single e-bike. Normally I see one or two on my travels. You can sit in a Paris street cafe and usually watch one or two go by.

On the other hand, the other thing I haven't seen yet in Copenhagen is a hill.

Nick

 

[frank9755]

Interesting. I saw none (e-bikes or hills!) in Belgium on a long cycling weekend this August. We read about the Dutch market being way ahead in adoption, so its surprising it appears not to have caught on in what are probably the two most similar markets

 

[flecc]

Erik, our Danish member has remarked on the very limited availability of e-bike variety there so that will be responsible as much as anything else. If they aren't on the market they wont sell much.

Erik had to personally import his Kalkhoff from Germany.
.

 

[Bigbee]

strange

Ive seen some publications from Denmark which normally offer high levels of penetration.

 

[Erik]

I didn't have to import from Germany, I was contacted by the Kalkhoff importer after inquiring 50Cycles to sell me an Agattu.

To my knowledge, the importer has since done nothing to market them - even after my appearance in the monthly COOP magazine. Maybe that was what it took to completely wipe out the chances of a market success in Denmark.

The Powabyke importer lives on my road to work, but I've never seen one on the road.

Batavus and Koga are on display at many bike dealers, and I see one from time to time.

MBK are also often on display.

Monark has recently been introduced.

Unfortunately most e-bikes are bought by people to weak to use a normal bike at all, and they don't get used, I suspect the abrupt nature of the hub motor to scare them off, as they feel that the bike is setting the pace.

I am currently trying to convince a friend that his very fresh 80-year old mother should buy an e-bike before she gets too weak to use her normal bike.
I recommend her the Monark ECO-bike since it's a Panasonic without all the frills of the Agattu.

 

[flecc]

I didn't have to import from Germany, I was contacted by the Kalkhoff importer after inquiring 50Cycles to sell me an Agattu.

I was going by your initial contact when you were thinking about buying from Germany and I assumed you had done that.
.

 

[Tiberius]

Just seen one. A Gazelle Easy Glider.
Parked up in a public rack in the city centre, so it is presumably being ridden around.

So now we know there are at least two here. I expect someone is already planning a race.

Nick

PS. Bigbee. Yes, Needlework and knitting are popular in Scandinavian countries.