Are the prices going nut ?

[Yayabike]

Well i first started to think about an ebike long ago, 6-7 years may be (mostly because i was aging), much before the ebike craze (fuelled by some general acknowledgement - 50 years too late -- of absolute necessity to leave the carbon age + the pandemic + the oil price surge). I pid my first Haibike for 1800 euros, it was a gignatic semi suspended VTTAE with a yamaha motor and a non integrated battery.

The logic of mass production should indeed push the prices downward but we almost got the opposite result.

Of course there is some inflation and today bikes are much better than ebike 5-10 years ago.

But there is something fishy when some many ebike cost more than a brand new, high end, low consumption 125 cm3 scooters.

So i m wondering if there is some tacit agreement between the "quality" brands to set the price of many bikes over 4000.

I m really puzzled to see many models from Gazelle, Orbea, Specialized, Moustache above 4000-4500 euro, especially when a scooter like the Hoda CRX 125 sells around that price.

 

[mschwett]

i think those scooters are more analogous to an aventon, ride1up, rad, lectric, etc, many of which are <$1k and most all are <$2k.

in the end there are a certain number of parts these things have - wheels, hubs, tires, forks, frames, seats, handlebars, batteries, motors, chains, gears, brakes... none of which are all that much cheaper than the parts of a scooter and some of which are substantially more expensive, e.g. the lithium ion battery.

i have a non-electric bike which cost five figures, it makes no sense at some level except as an object of desire, much the way there are cars that cost more than houses, and brake upgrades for cars that cost as much as entire decent used cars did a while back.

it's a golden age of ebikes, with prices from <$1k to $15k, and options to suit every use case.