Has anyone tried importing E bikes from Japan. Eg the National bikes that use the Pansonic drive system?

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They seem quite cheap if buying in Japan £350-£600 - for same type of excellent panasonic drive system. If we had these kind of prices here presumably that would make the difference beteween these types of bike being a minority interest to a more mainstream consumer product..........

 

Link to Website attached

 

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Edited January 11, 200818 yr by PedelecCommuter

50cycles used to import the Panasonic and Honda electric folders some years ago, but imports from Japan can be expensive and can be subject to limitations. That's why their car manufacturers are so willing to manufacture here and in mainland Europe, getting round import restrictions and allocations.

 

Those bikes would probably be as expensive as the European machines from Kalkhoff etc, and I think the European products are often better designs.

 

National is the same company by the way, they and Panasonic being divisions of Matsushita Corporation.

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Another link from Japan that is quite interesting. I am not sure which panasonic sytem this new one is being compared to - is it same one that is one the old Giant Lafree??

 

http://www.jbpi.or.jp/english/JBG/JBG2007-2008/data/014-015.pdf

I've seen this page before. My road test experiences with the Kalkhoff Agattu and prior Lafree experience with the early unit comfortably support the claims.

 

In the interim between those units, they appeared to move in a different direction at one point, the new unit with a smaller li-ion battery on the Gazelle Easy Glider subjectively seeming a trifle less powerful than the old unit with both in standard mode. The difference was so slight that it was difficult for most to be certain, though A to B felt it was definitely marginally down in power.

 

In addition, the Gazelle's 7.2 Ah range didn't impress, A to B's findings not pro rata to the Kalkhoff with 10 Ah battery, so it is possible that the comparison is with the first generation of the new unit, though it's a bit close to call, judged on range alone. There are differences between those two bikes as well, the Gazelle a bit heavier and not having a switched high power mode.

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It does seem that the Japanese technology is key for many of the best regarded e bikes.

 

This article back in 2006 asks the question about why (a) E bikes are so

much cheaper in Japan (b) why we do not see the Japanese e bikes in Europe.

 

Electric Vehicles UK

IThis article back in 2006 asks the question about why (a) E bikes are so

much cheaper in Japan (b) why we do not see the Japanese e bikes in Europe.

I think, as has been said before it is purely due to small potential market in Europe. The fact is that most Europeans don't want electric bicycles, either they are happy with conventional cycles or have no interest in cycling regardless of cost savings.

 

Panasonic as a manufacturer are perfectly within their rights to dictate where their products will be available and they obviously see more profit in supplying the power units to European manufacturers.

Edited January 13, 200818 yr by Ian

Yes if a company has a good product it can decide how it want to price in different markets to extract maximum benefit for itself (by working out where demand curve lies)....and this is a reasonable thing to do. However in doing this optimisation on the demand curve it is possible that there are more than one solution - And we may now be at a local minima/maxima and a better (global) soultion for them maybe higer volume lower margins.

 

Does Panasonic/National have an effective monopoly on thes crank drive pedelecs ?

 

For instance there are are Yamaha bike in Japan that use a PAS system but is this ultimately produced by Panasonic/National as well - it look s simialr from the picurues of the bikes but it is difficult to tell?

 

Here is a recent picture/blog of a Yamaha from someone who just bought one.

 

Floating Down Denial

There are other crank drives available but they are crude compared to the Panasonic system and as far as I know no others take the form of a self contained drive unit.

 

The Panasonic system is particularly effective due to its clever design and sophisticated software, these unique points are undoubtedly protected by patents.

Edited January 14, 200818 yr by Ian