Brose sold to Yamaha

[Base]

Market in the US in way smaller than what Yamaha had in mind, Also regulations are going from left to right in different regions and a lack of support mechanisme for consumers causes some headaches.

just ran into this one

good to read that in 2024 almost 80% was just a real e-bike sold in the US.

What surprised me even more is that Spesh is not on the short list when counting sales in the US.

also interesting to see how markets in "small" countries as Nld and Poland differ

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Well, your source might be biased, right? Or, Specialized does not share any data to the source?

When looking for the list for Poland, I would say ECOBIKE and Kross have a significant presence. Merida is absolutely a player here. Giant sells not more e-bikes than Specialized in Poland. But Accell Group? I have never spotted any e-bike coming from any of the Accell brands here! If you ask me what is the most frequently spotted e-bike brand in Poland, it is CUBE. It is even not listed here!

The chance of spotting a CUBE in my area is higher than of any other e-bike brand! Ah yes, I also spotted two ECOBIKE on last Sunday

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Would that be the new 48Volt system?

View attachment 191454

the sram powertrain did look nice

Rumours say it would be a Specialized motor manufactured by Mahle. The Specialized policy has been to either own the motor or have a special agreement with the motor manufacturer.
Going back to the stats. The Brose system as such has been present in these e-bikes:

• 4E
• Audi
• Beeq
• Bike Motion
• Bulls
• Campus
• Carlos
• Cheetah
• Cucuma
• Decathlon (select models)
• e-Framer
• Fantic
• Fischer
• Hercules
• Kraft Stoff
• Kristall
• Lee Cougan
• Mag
• Rotwild
• Poison
• Qwic
• Sblocks
• Schotterbock
• Serial 1
• Soee Cycles
• Tauberrad
• Triobike
• Van Rysel (Decathlon, select e-bikes)
• Waldbike

Most of these brands except Bulls, Decathlon/Van Rysel, Hercules, Rotwild or Serial 1 are very small and generally unknown. No wonder Brose has just 7% of the Euro market.

Brose motors in Specialized e-bikes are "Specialized" like in Specialized 2.2 and do not count to the stats. Same with Giant motors manufactured by Yamaha.

 

[JustRiding]

“Brose is projecting a €53M loss in 2024, with turnover slipping €200M across the whole entity at €7.7B. A major restructuring is underway—700 jobs cut, operations streamlined; a retreat back to core automotive activities is in play. Despite producing over two million e-bike drives and building a solid name in the space, the cycling division simply didn’t fit in their survival plan, and cycling’s momentary lull made it ripe for the cutting board.

Given the latest development on tariffs targetting car industry issued by the mad man in Washington, one may wonder if this was the right move by Brose to solemnly focus on their car business.

But it seems existing Brose motors will continue to be served by Yamaha in case of a defect, so not much to fear for consumers. Would be different if Spec would go bankrupt.

Guess we'll see more consolidation to come in the market, including a prise erosion as Asian manufacturers will push more of their production to Europe as US market thanks to these "tariffs" suddenly vanished. That will also put margins under pressure and consumers may be more reluctant to buy expensive bikes.

 

[JRA]

While I haven't seen it confirmed yet I think that Brose lost its S Levo contract? That alone would be good reason to cut it from their portfolio regardless of any sort of tariff pressures. Surprising though that Yamaha took up the mantle as they already have a pretty solid motor system to offer the EU market, and is in fact already in use by Haibike, Giant and a few others. Also the SRAM/Brose motor is kind of in limbo you might think but also don't have up to date data and certainly not a mainstream player in the motor marketplace.

One thing for sure is that the tariff's will affect the US ebike market because while there may be some "brands" that are assembled in the US they are made from mainly components sourced off shore, so tariff's will apply resulting in a higher retail cost.