For weeks, e-bike manufacturers and bicycle shops have been stunting with substantial discounts on electric bicycles. The prices of e-bikes from major brands have been reduced by hundreds of euros. There are several reasons for this. But an important factor is the weather.
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If you go to a bicycle shop now, chances are you can buy an e-bike with a hefty discount. Both shops and major bicycle brands have recently taken hundreds of euros off the prices of e-bikes. For example, this week Accell lowered the prices of some e-bike models of its Sparta, Koga and Batavus brands. The e-bikes from Flyer, Advanced and Cortina, among others, are also for sale at a discount. Some manufacturers are responding to VanMoof’s bankruptcy with actions, but that was not the real reason. The discounts are much needed, because the demand for e-bikes is disappointing.
Huge stocks
Record sales were achieved during the corona years, but the draft is now quite over. And due to the sharp rise in inflation, consumers are also more often postponing major purchases.
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Since spring, the bicycle retail trade, not only in the Netherlands but in many European countries, has been overcrowded with a large stock of e-bikes. Because sales are not going as fast as expected, manufacturers are getting fewer new orders. They are therefore left with large stocks, which costs them more and more money due to the rise in interest rates.
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Weather
But the weather also plays a crucial factor. Spring this year was very wet and cold. And summer isn’t great either. The result: far fewer e-bikes sold. “Because of the much too long, wet and cold spring, the cycling season started much later than usual. The specialist trade started with more than enough stock, which they now have to sell in a shorter period of time. And because the specialist trade has enough , there are fewer reorders, which means that the manufacturers’ warehouses are fuller than normal again,” cycling expert Arnauld Hackmann told Bright.
“It’s a kind of snowball effect, because production is also being adjusted downwards by extension. There’s little point in continuing to produce while you still have more than enough stock,” says Hackmann. “In order to get the market moving more, bicycles are offered with discounts across the industry.”
The bicycle industry is hoping for a warm late summer. “Everyone is convinced that this is a temporary situation that we all have to go through. Eventually it will all normalize,” Hackmann thinks.
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Parts shredded
The situation does lead to remarkable stories. Like this heard Hackmann recently stated at an international bicycle fair that a manufacturer of bicycle helmets still has enough stock until 2025. Another example: “A manufacturer of components has shredded parts worth one million euros, because this would be cheaper than storage of all those components.”
The discounts are larger than normal, Amslod CEO Marc Hollemans acknowledges in the FD. According to him, prices are ‘8 to 10 percent lower’ than normal. “But that is also necessary to get the numbers to be sold from our business plan.” Stocks at market leader Gazelle are now ‘back to a normal level’.
‘Again as crucial as for ice cream man’
Stella also had to deal with excessive stocks for a long time, but the situation has improved there. “If winter gets as bad as spring, we will have a hard time. But that applies to all companies in our industry,” says Stella’s head of marketing Oliver Trier in De Stentor. “The weather is just as important for the bicycle industry as it is for an ice cream vendor. Of course we have a fixed layer with purchases for school and work, but the weather is an important incentive.”
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2023-08-02 19:43:46
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