Andrew,Oxygen.....I am in direct contact with a large German distributor who supplies me with a lot of information about the German market....The German model is based around 2-3 year financing deals which really commit a customer to buy a new bike every 2-3 years and the customer is willing to join such deals,effectively they are renting their bikes-but the Germans are used to renting their homes,their cars,their boats etc. We have a completely different attitude in the UK,an Englishman's home is his castle-every young persons dream is to own their own home,we keep our cars on the road for longer and we look more towards the capital cost than the leasing payments. However according to my contact the German system is falling apart primarily because a national green energy company is selling a considerable number of hub drive e-bikes at Euro 1099.00-its a normal hub drive made by TranzX of Taiwan. Similarly Halfords in Holland have a bike they buy direct from China(I know the supplier well),its a similar step thro bike and sells for Euro 999.00-my supplier has supplied over 10,000 bikes. To compete with these discounted bikes my contact is discounting bikes from about Euro 1800 to Euro 1300,life is tough for him he is not competitive and constantly moans about retailers direct importing bikes from China.
On a seperate matter,the change Bosch have made to the power of the crank drive motor unit from 250 watt to 350 watt,to satisfy the HS class in Germany may cause problems to us in the UK-will they continue to manufacture the 250 watt motor as Germany represents 90% of the crank drive market?
Blew It>I too approached KTM in Germany,I think they have a good range of bikes and competitively priced-the KTM Mold 26"-Bosch drive, I would have sold here at about £1800. But they introduced so many obstacles including big volumes,money up front,minimum spares stock- I overcome every obstacle so ultimately they admitted they were really not interested in the UK market,shame I think the KTM Mold would have sold well here-I offered an advance order of 100 bikes.
There is a lot of R&D going into crank drive bikes in China,some will be rubbish but in the end a quality motor will be developed,the biggest market for chinese bikes outside of China is Germany so inevitably such a motor will be initially marketed there-it is of note that many of the high end German manufactuerers buy their frames in China-KTM has their frames made in the same chinese factory as the Kudos frames.
Dave
KudosCycles
On a seperate matter,the change Bosch have made to the power of the crank drive motor unit from 250 watt to 350 watt,to satisfy the HS class in Germany may cause problems to us in the UK-will they continue to manufacture the 250 watt motor as Germany represents 90% of the crank drive market?
Blew It>I too approached KTM in Germany,I think they have a good range of bikes and competitively priced-the KTM Mold 26"-Bosch drive, I would have sold here at about £1800. But they introduced so many obstacles including big volumes,money up front,minimum spares stock- I overcome every obstacle so ultimately they admitted they were really not interested in the UK market,shame I think the KTM Mold would have sold well here-I offered an advance order of 100 bikes.
There is a lot of R&D going into crank drive bikes in China,some will be rubbish but in the end a quality motor will be developed,the biggest market for chinese bikes outside of China is Germany so inevitably such a motor will be initially marketed there-it is of note that many of the high end German manufactuerers buy their frames in China-KTM has their frames made in the same chinese factory as the Kudos frames.
Dave
KudosCycles
