WITH the rising awareness of environmental protection and the popularisation of leisure and fitness concepts, e-bikes have become a new model of “green transportation” due to their various advantages such as power saving and zero pollution.
Thanks to gradually maturing technology and decreasing unit prices. Europe has become one of the major e-bike markets globally as the region leads the world in environmental awareness.
With the international e-bike market being driven by Europe as demand for e-bikes among seniors in the EU market increases, the average unit price of e-bikes exported to the EU from Taiwan has also risen significantly by 36.7%, thus creating an increase in the overall export value of e-bikes.
Taiwan’s export structure, apart from Europe, is led by exports of e-bikes to North America which in 2019 reached 144,000 units in volume, ranking the country first in terms of growth of export value among all regions.
Since the rise of the sharing economy, the Taiwanese bicycle industry was hit hard as the overall export value of its bicycles slid downward.
However, e-bikes have experienced “a rise in both volume and price” recently. According to data published by the Taiwanese Customs Administration, Europe and North America accounted for over 90% the country’s e-bikes exports, while the top three importing countries were the Netherlands, the US, and Germany.
However, the fact that the Taiwanese bicycle industry stresses quality over quantity as well as pursuing high-tech and high-value-added products has also greatly affected the development of the global bicycle technology.
Giant and Merida tap e-bike market
In recent years, Taiwan’s two major bicycle brands – Giant and Merida – have actively developed e-bike products to satisfy the global demand. For example, the Giant Group has invested 15 mil euro to set up a new plant in Hungary, thus getting closer to the rapid rising e-bike market in Europe by shortening the supply chain.
Giant bicycles are currently sold in over 50 countries with over 10,000 distributors around the world. The company which has been developing power-assisted bicycles since 1999 was also the first brand to bring power-assisted bicycles into the European market.
Founded in 1972, Merida Industry Co Ltd has also been targeting the trend of e-bikes. The launch of its e160, an electric mountain bicycle, caused a stir in the global market three years ago.
The “e160 900E Electric Full-Suspension Cross-Country Mountain Bicycle” which flaunted that climbing uphill would no longer be a burden, has become a classic representation of sports and leisure e-bikes and has won the Taiwan Excellence Silver Quality Award 2017.
In 2020, Merida launched the eONE-SIXTY and has again won the Taiwan Excellence Silver Quality Award, thanks to its variety of unique designs, including a new carbon fibre frame which is lighter and more rigid as well as a heat-conducting device to prevent the battery from overheating. – Nov 26, 2020
