m@Robertson
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
Well, when Specialized and Trek etc. combined sell motors in the hundreds of thousands, Bafang is selling them in the millions. Its not immediately obvious to us living in the West, but the Far East is an order-of-magnitude-plus larger ebike market than the entire Western world. So if you want to point to big, established manufacturers who have loads of experience in the marketplace... look to China. The Chinese are primarily catering to utilitarian riders who depend on a motorized bike for reliable transportation vs. recreational riders. So while there is an engineering excellence advantage in the West, in terms of value for the dollar from manufacturers who cater to those of modest means who need reliable transportation... that is a nut the West has not yet cracked (or even tried to).
How big of a market gap are we talking about? This graphic uses 2015 volumes, so the West has moved the needle some when it comes to showing up on the graph, but there is still a lonnnng way to go if a Western company is going to even approach being anything but 'tiny' by comparison.
Given Bafang's new factory in Poland designed to end the EU's restrictive production and content tarriffs that have protected native manufacturers' margins over the last few years, we're about to see some serious competitive pressure be applied to the Bosch's and Brose's of the world.,
While I'm a big fan of what have proven for me to be the economical, day-to-day dependability of Chinese motors, I look forward to that new in-your-face competitive pressure on Western industry. they gave themselves a breather by championing the EU tarriffs to try and protect their marketplace. Now, with Bafang playing on their home turf prices can only come down if they expect to survive. As always, competition is a win for consumers.
