Bicycle Vendors Hope to Harness Electric Buzz

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Bicycle Vendors Hope to Harness Electric Buzz
Alternative Mode: Steve Boyd of Tern North America in Bellflower sees millennials as particularly open to electric bikes.

Could electric bicycles finally be going mainstream in Los Angeles?

Long a novelty item, they appear to be gathering momentum locally. Several distributors have opened offices or launched product lines in the L.A. area in the last year and some general bicycle retailers have added them to their inventory.

These businesses are driven by the huge L.A. market, made up of aging baby boomers who need a little assist in their pedaling and millennials looking for portable bikes to zip through traffic.

“Out here, where people are supersensitive to long-distance commutes, (millennials) are open-minded to alternatives,” said Steve Boyd, general manager for Tern North America, a Taiwanese maker of commuter bicycles whose North American headquarters is in Bellflower. “Electric bicycles allow for the lengthening of a commute to work on a bicycle without being all sweaty and killing yourself going up that hill.”

Electric bicycles are the country’s fastest-growing bike segment, according to Larry Pizzi, L.A.-based president of Raleigh Electric, a division of Accell Group for North America and chairman of the Bicycle Product Suppliers Association’s e-bike committee. The value of retail sales of electric bicycles reached $70 million in the United States for the first 11 months of last year, up 80 percent from the previous year, he said, while unit sales were up about 70 percent in the period.

The $70 million figure is only about 3.5 percent of total bicycle sales in the United States, Pizzi said, but that percentage has nearly quadrupled in the last five years.

Tern’s Boyd said recent gains in technology have made the electric battery packs and motors smaller and more efficient, driving down prices, increasing range, and making electric bikes more portable.

Electric bicycle sales in the United States still have a long way to go to catch up with Europe, where powered bicycles often function as the main mode of transportation for owners. In the Netherlands, Pizzi said, electric bicycle sales have actually outpaced their conventional counterparts for the last couple of years.

Falling prices

That’s not the case in this country, but retailers hope new technology and more affordable products will help change that.

Almost all electric bicycles still require pedaling; the electric motor provides a boost, either for speed or for power. The speed is for customers who want to get from a bus or train stop to their workplace or other destination more quickly and without breaking too much of a sweat. The extra power is for customers who want to continue their recreational or exercise cycling but need pedal assist on hills or on return trips.

“It’s like having a real strong tailwind,” Boyd said.

Another bonus: As lithium battery packs have become more efficient, charging times have dropped to about two or three hours. Unlike some electric vehicles, almost all electric bicycles can be charged from conventional power outlets.

Electric bicycles have been around in some form for more than a quarter-century, but with their clunky motors and high prices, they’ve never achieved significant penetration in the United States.

Even today, the price point for electric bicycles – while half the levels of just four or five years ago – is still a little too high for mass-market penetration, Pizzi and other electric bike sellers said. Entry-level electric bikes retail for less than $1,500, with more well-known brands selling for about $2,000. More performance-oriented electric bicycles can easily top $3,000.

Tern launched a line of folding electric bicycles in the summer, raising $90,000 through Kickstarter – including nearly $3,000 each from 10 backers who will received one of the bikes later this year. Its folding bike will retail for $3,400.

“The technology now is just starting to deliver small, powerful motors at borderline affordable prices,” said Farzad Taghaboni, president of FTH Group, a City of Industry automobile electronics service company that is ramping up to sell electric bicycles made by Shenzhen, China-based Dynabike. “We are closing in on the $1,000 threshold at which mass-market appeal really kicks in.”

Taghaboni said FTH had been selling lithium starter batteries for motorcycles, but decided to add electric bicycles last year after several customers started asking for nonpolluting alternatives to motorcycles.

Ken Fung is the company’s vice president.

Next wave

As prices have started to come down, dozens of companies have moved to enter the market, forming a follow-on wave to the rush that occurred several years ago. That push didn’t last, as many companies did not provide good follow-up service and support, said Craig Savage, sales and service manager for one of the oldest electric bicycle dealers in the region, Electric Bikes LA in El Segundo.

Savage said sales of the bicycles have been fairly steady in recent months.

“Yes, demand is up, but so is the number of additional shops selling the bikes, so that’s why sales are steady,” he said.

While these small distributors have been starting up in Los Angeles, general bicycle retail outlets are also beginning to take an interest in electric bicycles. For years, some stores had carried an electric bicycle or two, more as a novelty or niche item than anything else. That’s starting to change.

Wheel World Bike Shops, which has stores in Culver City and Woodland Hills, started carrying a significant inventory of electric bicycles from several manufacturers in January of last year, according to co-owner Kyle Paulson.

At that time, the price points had fallen enough to justify carrying about two dozen electric bicycles at each store, including commuter, family, recreational, and mountain bikes, Paulson said.

Since then, he said, sales of electric bicycles have been steady, though hardly spectacular. He added that about 90 percent of the bikes have been sold to an age demographic between 45 and 65.

“Demand is not gangbusters, but they are definitely selling,” he said. “The segment is getting more and more interest.”

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