A Xiaomi intelligent power folding bike, the price in France up to 999 euros (nearly 8,000 yuan), booked today, August 10 to dry hands. The price of this "Mijia Riding Record Electric Assist Folding Bike" is only 2,999 RMB on Xiaomi's official website in China. Benefiting from government subsidies and the desire for a healthy lifestyle, electric bikes in Europe have taken off after the epidemic, even to the point of being out of stock.
The epidemic has changed the way Europeans live, and one of the most interesting things is that they have gone from being unimpressed with e-bikes to being the new fashion. This has become a godsend for e-bikes: in France, public transportation is not safe and masks are mandatory; Paris, Berlin, Milan and many other major European cities are promoting green commuting, and after the ban was lifted, another piece of the already narrow highway was opened up for bikes, making it easier for bikes, but more inconvenient for private cars to travel to and from work.
Alibaba's cross-border e-commerce channel Selling Tong recently had a very interesting data: compared with the same period of the previous year, the sale of bicycles in Spain in May increased by more than 22 times, Italy, the United Kingdom increased by about 4 times. Together, the sales of electric scooters also increased significantly, with Italy increasing by nearly 9 times, the UK by nearly 8 times, and France by 380%.
As always, electric bikes have been a very difficult existence in Europe. Five or six years ago, the British version of "The Apprentice" did a business project related to electric bikes, and a locally made electric bike cost £1200, and immediately a contestant was baffled and asked: Why should the bike be electric? In Western Europe, where the proportion of households with cars is more than 80%, bicycles have always been more of a "fitness tool" than a daily commuter, with the biggest benefits being enhanced cardiovascular health, lower blood pressure, and muscle training, among others.
So, why is a bicycle electric? This "dilemma" has made electric bicycles a niche product in Europe for the past few years.
In Europe, the government has launched the purchase of electric bicycle impact program, the electric bicycle in Europe finally boiled to spring.
--France and Italy are making up for the e-bike, and the UK is hungry
From the beginning of this month, in order to encourage citizens to travel more healthily, Chambéry in eastern France has started to subsidize 500 euros for each household that buys an e-bike - this is at least a 25% discount for e-bikes.
Chambéry is not the first time that France has subsidized the purchase of electric bicycles for its citizens, but it definitely became the first city to make a big deal about how much it subsidizes its citizens to buy electric bicycles after the law-wide ban was lifted. Since January 2018, the Paris region (Ile-de-France) has been offering a €1,200 rebate for freelancers and some companies to supply electric bicycle "trucks" in order to combat urban pollution and encourage companies to "deliver" with electric bicycles. In France, at least a dozen cities are offering hundreds to thousands of euros in subsidies for the purchase of electric trucks, while in Europe, about a dozen countries including France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands and Austria and Belgium have launched similar subsidy programs.
"For the average person, the purchase of an e-bike requires a considerable amount of money, with the average e-bike costing between 1,000 and 3,000 euros. But the government subsidy gives at least a 25% discount on e-bikes. In the first two weeks after the grant started to be requested, one of our stores sold 70 bikes in two months." The salesperson at a bike store called Mondovélo told me cheerfully.
In addition, for the purchase of e-bikes, Paris has a similar subsidy program to Chambéry's, which was even introduced in February of this year when the epidemic was not serious - it can subsidize up to 50%, with a subsidy cap of 500 euros.
Germany proposed e-bike subsidies earlier than Italy. Companies and charities in Munich and freelancers are able to get government subsidies to buy e-bikes to promote "electric mobility": up to €1,000 for "electric bicycle trucks" and €500 for e-bikes. Naturally, this is good news for e-bike manufacturers. For example, the German luxury car brand BMW is active in the field of bicycles, from the full range of bicycles to electric bicycles there are 8 models: a BMW electric city hybrid bike price up to 2590 euros; a folding ordinary bicycle price of 775 euros.
In Italy, all residents of cities with a population of more than 50,000 are entitled to a subsidy of up to 70% of the price of an electric bicycle or an electric scooter, with a limit of 500 euros. This is one of the impact actions of the "relaunch" of Italy, and the subsidy will last from May 4th to December 31st of this year. In a country that loves cycling, government subsidies for e-bikes are making a big difference. In May, Italians were nine times more likely to buy an e-bike; far more than the British 1.4 times and the French 1.2 times.
The UK also saw a wave of bicycle and e-bike gains in the second quarter, but the industry as a whole is not satisfied with the government's policies and only expects the government to subsidize e-bikes as its other EU neighbors do.
Sina Finance through the British Bicycle Federation (BA) learned that in April, the price of bicycle sales between 400 and 1000 pounds simply doubled compared to the same period last year, but the electric bicycle did not have the same excellent performance in the month, although also reached the sales volume increased by 50% compared to the same period last year, but the British Bicycle Federation still think this increase is not negative. So Steve Garidis, executive director of the British Cycling Federation, thought the April sales figures should serve as strong evidence to convince the British government to launch a purchase impact program to accelerate the increase in e-bike sales.
The British Cycling Federation has a point, even estimating that even with a £250 government grant, UK e-bike sales could double in the next 12 months. Of course, the government should also step in to promote the many benefits of e-bikes and make them a travel "fad."
-- Who will benefit from this e-bike goldmine?
In Europe, bike malls are not very flexible. For example, bicycles in the German market are generally shown in the fall of the previous year, orders are placed, and a full year of production is planned based on the orders. So many of the bikes sold in the malls now are still ordered in August and September of the previous year. In this scenario, European bicycle manufacturers are having a hard time coping with the sudden surge in demand.
In Germany, e-bike sales account for one-third of all bikes sold, and the German bicycle market has been on the rise in the last two months, with local manufacturers even facing a replenishment dilemma. For example, Hamburg-based bicycle maker Stevens in northern Germany kept up production even during the peak of the epidemic, but by the end of June it had sold out of all existing 2020 stock in its warehouse. This is thanks to the fact that the company's Chinese supplier did not stop production in February, so they were supplied with parts to meet 4 to 6 weeks of production.
At the moment, the situation facing China, which has an absolute competitive advantage in terms of cost performance, is also very complicated in the EU market.
Although China is the world's largest producer of electric bicycles, Europe is also fully defending this emerging growth segment, and since July 2018, the EU has raised the tariff on electric bicycles to 84% from the previous 6%, to control the large number of Chinese electric bicycles entering the European market with anti-subsidy and anti-dumping measures.
For example, Sina Finance learned from Darty, a French hometown store, that a Xiaomi smart power folding bicycle, the price of 999 euros (nearly 8,000 yuan), but also need to book in advance, August 10 to arrive. This "Mijia riding record electric power folding bicycle" in the Xiaomi official website price of 2999 yuan.
Under such a protective policy, European hometown electric bicycle factories and start-ups are flourishing, with their primary efforts devoted to dealing with competitors in Eastern Europe. After the epidemic, many home appliance manufacturers and innovative companies are even more bullish on the wave, either increasing their investment or quickly establishing branch factories.
Even so, Germany, France and the UK still have a large number of local bicycle companies mostly designing templates, and the whole bike production or parts are still to be ordered in China, because some production technology is still in the hands of Chinese companies.
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