New phenomenon has appeared in the market in the last 24 months. It is something we have seen before with the bio bikes and Shimano, but only in combination of the very cheap small unknown bike brands.
We called those “Shimano bikes” and above mentioned brands even put many stickers on the frame with the Shimano logo to make them more appealing.
In the recent months I started to hear more and more e-bike manufacturers talking about their e-bikes with Bosch systems and them having no other choice of drives when the choice of quality e-bike drive systems has never been bigger.
They tell me that their customers, especially located in Germany, want only “Bosch bikes” and that the price competition in these bike segment is not far from crazy.
So this phenomenon can be called “Bosch bikes”
To some extent I can understand the average customer in Germany having trust in the household name such as Bosch. I would also be tempted as a buyer to do buy this bike as well.
But on the other side this presents a threat to e-bike makers becoming the household appliance market competitor. Bikes may become a washing machine type of commodity and the pricing competition in this sector is quite tough. Something we are not used to in the bike industry.
What was interesting in the market these days is seeing some bigger brands covering the motors and not showing the brand of the motor at all thus taking back their brand dominance on the e-bike. I don’t get the benefit here but there must be some.
Other thing I saw is that some brands are teaming up with the makers of drive systems and branding them with their own brand forming a long term partnerships and joint development. Specialized did something like this and even SRAM as a component maker did something similar.
Both of these solutions are more difficult paths to selling the bikes but still keeping your brand at the front and on the market.
On top of that this way these brands can be unique and different. They can offer to the customers different unique features compared to the standard offers. They can also control all of the parameters of the ride and assistance making the ride tailored to their bikes and customers.
Most importantly these brands can’t be compared to others so easily hence your brand value and profits are higher.
Bottom line ” Your brand your Rules”
This doesn’t come with risks of course. First risk is choosing the right partner for the drive train, responsibility for their mistakes are on you. Second risk is servicing, you must be ready to do extra work and set up a system for service in the markets you sell to. Third risk is persuading the dealers and end users that your brand offers a better package than the usual ones.
What stuck with me is a speech I heard from Alex Thusbass the CEO of Hepha about his vision for his brand and why he chose to develop his own system for it. He is a very powerful speaker and left a very strong impression on me. Made me realize the relevance of the bike brand rather than the components on that brand. I urge you to keep you eyes open for his speaking engagements, you will surely benefit from hearing what he has to say.
For the end I will leave you with a thought:
“Volkswagen uses a lot of Bosch made components but you still buy a Volkswagen car”
This meaning, be sure to use the best possible components on you e-bikes (Bosch definitely included) but take care about your own brand !
