Huge increase in UK e-bikes

[flecc]

Bike Europe reports that in the first seven months of 2018 there were imports of some 43,000 e-bikes and arrivals of new e-bikes from EU countries of some 16,000, so a total of around 59,000 for the seven months.

Last years total was some 62,500, so this year's figures are going to be a sharp increase again. Sales will decline in the Autumn but we seem on course for a total in the region of 75,000 to 80,000. That's about five times what it was when the forum opened.

Meanwhile sales of unpowered bikes are down again after last years lower than previous figures.
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[Gubbins]

I was reading that Halfords is largely responsible for this. I supose it makes sense being a national brand.

 

[flecc]

I was reading that Halfords is largely responsible for this.

I think it's hills.
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[Woosh]

I was reading that Halfords is largely responsible for this. I supose it makes sense being a national brand.

Halfords alone has 460 stores.
I reckon the number of bike shops offering test ride must be in the region of 1,000+ now.

 

[Gubbins]

Halfords alone has 460 stores.
I reckon the number of bike shops offering test ride must be in the region of 1,000+ now.

Yeh? where are they? Most people know where their nearest Halford is, but a bike shop?
To the none cyclist a bike shop can be a bit intimidating with all the fancy gear and licra warriors wandering around, wheras Halfords is very family freindly and generally in an area with plenty of parking, and usually not a licronian in sight, so I recon that most newbies going to look at bikes would go there first.
Around my location I have an Halfords with easy parking thats open till late and 3 large and another 3 or 4 small independant bike shops that close 5 ish, none of which have any sort of parking.
My point about Halfords was a report I rtead saying they were leading the way on sales of e-bikes.

 

[Nefarious]

It's funny, I buy my kids' and my wife's bikes at Halfords but I wouldn't dream of buying mine!!

 

[Gubbins]

It's funny, I buy my kids' and my wife's bikes at Halfords but I wouldn't dream of buying mine!!

Ah but you know different! What about another bloke, without your knowledge on the subject, taking the family to Halfords for a new bike for a childs birthday and spots the ebikes there.. Would he think.. Wow, an electric bike! ...

 

[Nefarious]

Ah but you know different! What about another bloke, without your knowledge on the subject, taking the family to Halfords for a new bike for a childs birthday and spots the ebikes there.. Would he think.. Wow, an electric bike! ...

He might well. I've never had a great experience with Halfords tbh, though my Mrs won't set foot in Evans as she feels intimidated...

 

[flecc]

Yeh? where are they? Most people know where their nearest Halford is, but a bike shop?

In my London Borough there was a specialist bike shop named Geoffrey Butler Cycles with no chance of parking nearby, where if you walked in looking and dressed like a normal human being you were guaranteed to be ignored.

But some way down the same main road and on the same side there was a large bike shop called BikePlus. There's parking bays in front of the showroom, nothing intimidating about it and one could wander around indoors without ever being pestered but given good service if wanted.

But Geoffrey Butler's owned BikePlus as their alternative outlet!!

And in the latest development the Geoffrey Butler shop has been closed and they've merged the two at the BikePlus premises:

It used to look like this with the entrance to one side by Machine Mart's

But now it looks like this with an old fashioned front entrance taking away window space.

I haven't been in since so I don't know what version of service is there now, but since a bike rack has been added instead of one car bay it's got more bias to cyclists now.
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[peter.c]

Do not shout to loud as the govt will find a way to add a green tax

 

[flecc]

Do not shout to loud as the govt will find a way to add a green tax

They're currently reducing green subsidies.

The grant scheme for buying electric cars ends in October and they've already said the payments will be reduced, this will be the second reduction. Currently it's broadly speaking £4500 to buy a pure electric and £2500 to buy a plug-in hybrid, and there's a £500 grant for installing a charge point.

Of course they've already greatly reduced subsidies for solar panel installations.

Maybe not the ideal time to ask for an e-bike grant?
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[Gubbins]

Low emission cars used to be cheap to tax, now there are lots of them and revenue is down that has changed.. When we all have e-cars how will the lost revenue be found?

 

[peter.c]

if the govt provide a contribution the cost price will suddenly jump up by the same amount think help to buy or solar panels

 

[flecc]

if the govt provide a contribution the cost price will suddenly jump up by the same amount

That didn't happen with pure electric cars though. Their price was originally so high that even a £5000 grant tempted very few. In
fact the car prices went down substantially over time while the grant stayed the same until quite recently.

Take the Nissan Leaf. In single model form it was launched seven years ago at £32,000, then the price gradually reduced over the next four years, despite it being upgraded with a 25% larger battery.

Now for this year it's been considerably improved with a further 33.3% battery size increase, 40% higher power and a huge range of sophisticated upgrades. The basic model starts at circa £22,000 and I've bought my one-down from top of the range model for £25,500.

So £6500 less for a greatly improved car during seven years of inflation, but only losing one tenth of the government grant (£500).
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[Gubbins]

Is the 25k after the grant?

That didn't happen with pure electric cars though. Their price was originally so high that even a £5000 grant tempted very few. In
fact the car prices went down substantially over time while the grant stayed the same until quite recently.

Take the Nissan Leaf. In single model form it was launched seven years ago at £32,000, then the price gradually reduced over the next four years, despite it being upgraded with a 25% larger battery.

Now for this year it's been considerably improved with a further 33.3% battery size increase, 40% higher power and a huge range of sophisticated upgrades. The basic model starts at circa £22,000 and I've bought my one-down from top of the range model for £25,500.

So £6500 less for a greatly improved car during seven years of inflation, but only losing one tenth of the government grant (£500).
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[flecc]

Is the 25k after the grant?

Yes, but the grant wasn't immediately available originally so the £6500 less is correct when comparing start to finish. Once it was introduced at £5000 that made the difference £1500, but there was no charging point subsidy so that lifted both by £500, to £7000 and £2000 respectively.

Even at the lower £2000 figure the additional gain is very large, seven years of inflation discounted and a car that is incomparably superior and much better equipped than the original.

Come November the grant goes down, but we are yet to learn by how much.
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[tillson]

I was at Rutland Cycles last week. The sales person there was telling me that Ebike sales generate 80% of their profit. That sounds a lot to me, but a sizeable portion of the showroom is dedicated to electric bikes, so they are clearly making money from them.

I had a go on a couple of Bosch powered Kalkhoff bikes & I must say the power delivery was very smooth and natural. I’m pleased to see that they have dumped the dreaded Impulse motor on certain models, in fact all of the stock was Bosch powered.

 

[flecc]

I was at Rutland Cycles last week. The sales person there was telling me that Ebike sales generate 80% of their profit. That sounds a lot to me, but a sizeable portion of the showroom is dedicated to electric bikes, so they are clearly making money from them.

I'm not surprised, the same became apparent in the main EU cycling countries as e-bike sales expanded. Dealers were soon reporting that most of their income was from e-bikes despite many more sales of unpowered bikes, due mainly to e-bike much higher prices and margins.

Also as much as a third of all unpowered bikes sold in the UK are childrens bikes and their prices are far below the e-bike ones.
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[Nefarious]

Add to that, my bike came with a Service History Book!! So it's not just about sales but there's a whole new income stream in servicing of E-Bikes too!

 

[soundwave]

lets see whats in this book then

one guy bought a new bike and then had the chain fitted 2 times the wrong way round so both snapped, then was sent a mobil machinc to fit one the right way as the dealer could not read the instructions pmsl.