When will Vado SL 4.0(or 5.0) upgrate in 2025

[toku]

Hello everyone，thank you so much for the comments, discussions and advices here.
I went to Trek this morning and talked with their staff. As I am a student so the budget is tight and I found that trek MTB are so expensive and the staff told me if it is using within the city the MTB is not recommend even they have the larger power, battery and suspension. Since Trek and Specialized are two of my dreaming brands, and Trek ebike in Japan within my budget is almost MTB, so I have to give up Trek and I have to say specialized Vado sl 4.0 (or maybe 5.0) is my only option now.
Based on the information above, whether the vado sl 4.0(or 5.0) updated to 1.2 motor or teminated, from my point of view, there shall be a discount on the current version and the current version has not been updated for a long time as I see( I don't know 2 years are longer enough or not for ebikes). I was trying to contact several specilalized shops around the city i live in and I found they only provide vado sl 5.0 to have a try now and 4.0 seems only available on online shop( but the stock is quite enough). I think my only option is to wait. If specilaized promises that they will not update vado sl in the this year, i will absolutely buy one tomorrow but we all know it is impossible from the big company point of view. It is just due to my personal Consumption concept. Thank you so much!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

My only gripe is that it would have been nice to have an assist level between sport and turbo for the times when sport isn’t quite enough and turbo is to much.

The assist is fully adjustable You could easily set it between the default Sport and Turbo (as a new Sport setting). The new Mastermind TCU also allows adjusting the assistance as you ride.
SL 1.2 motor is for people who need more than 1.1 Turbo.

Let me tell you guys when it all went wrong. Specialized was unique when the brand brought the lightweight/low power e-bikes in. The competition had no lightweight mid-drive motors at that time. Later, the competing brands brought stronger lightweight motors such as TQ HPR 50, Fazua, etc. From that moment, Specialized forgot it was making e-bikes for riders but rather went to compete with other brands. Now, the SL 1.1 had to disappear not to compete with Vado SL 2. We are forced now to buy "New Nescafe Gold with gold bars" but cannot get our favourite "Nescafe Gold Classic" anymore! Will SL2 sell? Probably not. The competing e-bikes may sell badly, too. It is irrelevant for the corporation. Are SL 2s selling slowly? "The whole SL idea was wrong from the start. Let's discontinue SL!"


One Nicolaus Copernicus wrote: "Bad money drive out good". Lived he today, he would treatise on e-bikes.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

The assist is fully adjustable You could easily set it between the default Sport and Turbo (as a new Sport setting). The new Mastermind TCU also allows adjusting the assistance as you ride.
SL 1.2 motor is for people who need more than 1.1 Turbo.

Let me tell you guys when it all went wrong. Specialized was unique when the brand brought the lightweight/low power e-bikes in. The competition had no lightweight mid-drive motors at that time. Later, the competing brands brought stronger lightweight motors such as TQ HPR 50, Fazua, etc. From that moment, Specialized forgot it was making e-bikes for riders but rather went to compete with other brands. Now, the SL 1.1 had to disappear not to compete with Vado SL 2. We are forced now to buy "New Nescafe Gold with gold bars" but cannot get our favourite "Nescafe Gold Classic" anymore! Will SL2 sell? Probably not. The competing e-bikes may sell badly, too. It is irrelevant for the corporation. Are SL 2s selling slowly? "The whole SL idea was wrong from the start. Let's discontinue SL!"


One Nicolaus Copernicus wrote: "Bad money drive out good". Lived he today, he would treatise on e-bikes.

I think it's far more complicated than this. And this thread is probably not the one to have a wide ranging discussion. But in short Specialized are in trouble. They're not alone. For years the main competition was the rest of the big four Cannondale, Giant and Trek. Post covid the landscape has changed dramatically. It's like cars with EVs becoming a major part of the equation and major brands like Nissan, VW and Toyota feeling the pinch. Now Spesh is being attacked from all sides. With the commuter e bikes it's not just the other lightweight motors Fazua Bosch SX etc it's that the whole commuter market has several new bike brands undercutting them and in a cost of living crises when people are much more cautious about spending a lot of Money. In emtb the competition is ferocious and in road bikes also there are new brands eating away at their once dominant position and the bottom has fallen out of the traditional MTB market, the market Specialized grew from. Trek et all are fighting the same battle for survival. At the lower end of commuter market, new brands mostly hub bikes like Estarli and Eskute in UK, offer bikes that are well made, clean looking and offer good warranty and are cheaper - a friend of mine daughter is in college & they got her an Estarli e28.X for around £1500 and it's a lovely bike & she loves it. In emtbs the best seller right now is that DJI Amflow bike, which, like the market inroads that huge Chinese car companies like BYD are making with similar brilliant tech, well made, cheaper then traditional brands but still premium. And Specialized was already competing with the direct to consumer brands like Canyon, massive supermarket brands like Decathlon and European brands like Cube or Orbea. There's not a huge amount of space for Specialized against all that. Especially internationally. And it's not that these competitors bikes are cheaper but are inferior, far from it, bikes like the Decathlon Van Rysel RCR Pro is the top-range road bike used by the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale team in the Tour de France - it is so popular it's constantly sold out and undercuts the Spesh Tarmac SL& by a few thousand (£5k to £9k approx) Soon the Chinese giant XDS high end carbon fibre road frames will be everywhere. Largest Chinese high end carbon bike manufacturer, they already make frames for a lot of western bike brands & supposedly 10 million bikes a year, with glitzy high end concept stores in every Chinese city. And the same is now happening in EMTB.

10, 20 years ago Specialized like the others couldn't compete with badly made but very cheap supermarket bikes so they went upmarket. Under this new onslaught they seem to be retreating in the same direction hence the carbon Vado SL, but I think to survive they need to compete with the new brands and make good bikes that are midrange in price especially as that upmarket region is shrinking and there is little brand loyalty just the excitement of the new. In cars Renault are attempting a similar approach with the release of the Renault 5 EV - it is marketed (successfully) on the love of the old petrol Renault 5 (My mum had one) and is selling for a reasonable price in street cool bright colours and from a reliable brand people trust and have a history with. Kind of what BMW did with the Mini. I personally think that's how legacy brands need to operate.

I think Spesh are in panic mode, I agree that if they are killing the Vado SL it's a short sighted decision, unless the bikes are just not selling in enough volume. And who can blame them for panicking. The bike market is volatile and only time will tell who survives and who thrives!

 

[BEC111]

I think it's far more complicated than this. And this thread is probably not the one to have a wide ranging discussion. But in short Specialized are in trouble. They're not alone. For years the main competition was the rest of the big four Cannondale, Giant and Trek. Post covid the landscape has changed dramatically. It's like cars with EVs becoming a major part of the equation and major brands like Nissan, VW and Toyota feeling the pinch. Now Spesh is being attacked from all sides. With the commuter e bikes it's not just the other lightweight motors Fazua Bosch SX etc it's that the whole commuter market has several new bike brands undercutting them and in a cost of living crises when people are much more cautious about spending a lot of Money. In emtb the competition is ferocious and in road bikes also there are new brands eating away at their once dominant position and the bottom has fallen out of the traditional MTB market, the market Specialized grew from. Trek et all are fighting the same battle for survival. At the lower end of commuter market, new brands mostly hub bikes like Estarli and Eskute in UK, offer bikes that are well made, clean looking and offer good warranty and are cheaper - a friend of mine daughter is in college & they got her an Estarli e28.X for around £1500 and it's a lovely bike & she loves it. In emtbs the best seller right now is that DJI Amflow bike, which, like the market inroads that huge Chinese car companies like BYD are making with similar brilliant tech, well made, cheaper then traditional brands but still premium. And Specialized was already competing with the direct to consumer brands like Canyon, massive supermarket brands like Decathlon and European brands like Cube or Orbea. There's not a huge amount of space for Specialized against all that. Especially internationally. And it's not that these competitors bikes are cheaper but are inferior, far from it, bikes like the Decathlon Van Rysel RCR Pro is the top-range road bike used by the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale team in the Tour de France - it is so popular it's constantly sold out and undercuts the Spesh Tarmac SL& by a few thousand (£5k to £9k approx) Soon the Chinese giant XDS high end carbon fibre road frames will be everywhere. Largest Chinese high end carbon bike manufacturer, they already make frames for a lot of western bike brands & supposedly 10 million bikes a year, with glitzy high end concept stores in every Chinese city. And the same is now happening in EMTB.

10, 20 years ago Specialized like the others couldn't compete with badly made but very cheap supermarket bikes so they went upmarket. Under this new onslaught they seem to be retreating in the same direction hence the carbon Vado SL, but I think to survive they need to compete with the new brands and make good bikes that are midrange in price especially as that upmarket region is shrinking and there is little brand loyalty just the excitement of the new. In cars Renault are attempting a similar approach with the release of the Renault 5 EV - it is marketed (successfully) on the love of the old petrol Renault 5 (My mum had one) and is selling for a reasonable price in street cool bright colours and from a reliable brand people trust and have a history with. Kind of what BMW did with the Mini. I personally think that's how legacy brands need to operate.

I think Spesh are in panic mode, I agree that if they are killing the Vado SL it's a short sighted decision, unless the bikes are just not selling in enough volume. And who can blame them for panicking. The bike market is volatile and only time will tell who survives and who thrives!

Thanks for the further details. I’ve not been round bikes for long so my perceptions are limited. I think you are fairly accurate in your analysis. This focus on the high end is not good for cycling nor in the best interest of the purported goals of the cycling and e-bike movements. Getting more bikes in the hands of more people requires more bikes. That more people can afford.

End of screed.