MICROMOBILITY
‘ULTIMATELY, THE MISSION OF SWYTCH IS TO MAKE ELECTRIC BIKES ACCESSIBLE FOR EVERYONE’
were prepared to wait until later in the year to get hold of one, or customers could buy now from a limited stock at £600. We spoke to co-founder Oliver Montague to discuss the new Go Kit, where the brand has come from and what’s in store for Swytch’s future.
The mission Firstly, it’s important to understand exactly what Swytch’s mission is, and how they are looking to add to the ever- more crowded conversion kit marketplace. “Ultimately, the mission of Swytch is to make electric
bikes accessible for everyone. Pretty much everyone has a bike at home, and if you use the bike you already have, it really doesn’t cost much to put a good quality kit on. “And if you’re making 10s of 1000s of the same product, you can charge the consumer lower prices than if you’re just making 10 of one and 10 of that one. So Swytch is one kit, that is very easy to install by anyone, that will fit basically any bike and at an affordable point.”
The Go Kit Earlier this year, the brand launched the Go Kit, their cheapest conversion kit offering yet. It’s the successor to
the Air Kit, which is one of the lightest conversion kits on the market.
The Go Kit uses the same framework, with a hub powered motor and a battery that connects externally to the frame, but Swytch found that consumers were after something a bit more cost-effective, even at the expense of weight and user experience. “I think one and a half to two years ago, lots of people were getting hit by the cost of living crisis, and we were seeing our rate of demand lessen a bit. We were still selling more kits every month, but demand was slowing. So we did some testing, and we realised that a year ago, people had £500 to £700 to spend on a conversion kit, but now all of a sudden, there was much more demand for something cheaper. “We found that people were interested even if something has a few less features, but cost more like £300 to £500. So last year we started looking at the version of the kit we could offer at that price point, and the result is the Go Kit. “The power, the battery quality, the battery safety, the performance, the waterproofness, all of the important bits are actually just the same as our older kit, but we’ve made a few compromises in user experience.”
www.bikebiz.com
July 2024 | 33
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
