Size of the market.

[Wisper Bikes]

Hi Guys, Does any one have any data on the size of the ebike market in the UK? I am trying to research it but am getting wildly conflicting results.

Best regards David

 

[flecc]

Frank9755 entered an interesting post on this subject David, which might be of some use. Here's the link.

I think the market is nearer 15,000 to 20,000 units a year, but mostly low end sales around £300 to £400 per unit.
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[frank9755]

Thanks, Flecc, for finding the link to that old post for me!

David, I've found two other data points since that post:

1. I looked at the accounts of Ultima Networks, the holding company for PowaCycle, and they pretty imply their electric bike revenue in 2006 was £5-600k. They sell direct and via dealers, so adding a bit of dealer mark-up (and you will have a better idea about what that is than me) you might get to about £750k at RSP, or about 1500 units.

As it happens, my wife bought a Powacycle the other week from The Electric Transport Shop (who also let me have a test drive on a Wisper!). They said the Powacycle Salisbury/Windsor was their best selling model. I would expect their sales will be quite strongly up, given decent product, good reviews and keen pricing, so they could be doing 2-3,000 units this year. This is consistent with a market of the order of 10,000 units, or about £5m - as I suggested in that previous post. It could easily be double that, as per Flecc's estimate, but I don't sense it wculd be more than 20,000/£10m - yet!

2. A very interesting study from Berkley University posted by Miles Hellon, which gives a Chinese market of 10 million units (!). Says nothing directly about the UK but some very interesting market penetration benchmarks, such as share of total bicycle market, e-bikes per head, etc

Please let us know if you get any data which either confirms or contradicts!

Frank

 

[flecc]

To Frank9755

My larger figure results from including sales of people like Thompsons who mainly shift low end shoppers circa £300-£450. They used to only sell through their five stores but claimed to import several thousands a year. Early in this decade they were planning on 10,000 units after exceeding 6000 in a year. Even allowing for exaggeration they are major elements in the market who are often overlooked, and now sell online as well.

They illustrate their bikes online here and they've been tested by A to B magazine.
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[Leonardo]

Funny things with these low end chinese bicycles...
The Thompson K2 is sold in Italy for one third of the price: a chap of our Italian forum bought one of them and discovered it was unsuitable over a 3% gradient!

 

[flecc]

I'm not surprised Leonardo, that bike isn't Thompson's usual type and I don't think they have sold many. You'll notice on that website I gave that the K2 is sidelined, the Euro models being their mainstay as they've been for over six years, unchanged as well over that time. Their wheel sizes are unusual, the City having 18" wheels, the Classic with 24" wheels and the most unusual being the Tourer with 22" wheels, the only bike I know currently with that size.

The Euro Classic, Tourer and City models are single speed freewheel with very low gear for the rider giving top pedalling speed well below 10 mph. The motor is also low geared and the bikes are intended for people who don't want to pedal. Their top speed on motor is around 12 to 13 mph, but being low geared they can climb a bit according to A to B.
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[Wisper Bikes]

Market

Hi Frank and Flecc

Thanks for that, I have come up with similar figures, my main source being Extra Energy. The have sent me European figures which are on my computer at the office. They were something like this;

2005 160,000
2006 180,000
2007 220,000
2008 300,000 projected
2009 480,000 projected

I simply divided by 10.

I will lost their true figures on Tuesday.

Best regards David