MICROMOBILITY
admin required to ride it legally, loop back to an e-bike.” “Speed pedelec customers throughout Europe are purchasing to directly replace car, bus or train journeys. Many European brands talk about speed pedelec ‘drivers’ in the knowledge they are utilitarian vehicles chosen to get owners to their destination quickly and safely. Everyone is happy to insure and tax their second car or motorbike, or continually update that rail card: why should this task be that much more onerous than any other transport method?” “If you’re selling it as a regular bicycle with additional admin, you’re underselling its functionality in someone’s lifestyle. There’s a huge topic to be investigated here around cycling culture, and where the bicycle industry slots into the wider urban mobility landscape, but keeping things simple: a retailer sells a speed-pedelec by articulating the benefit specific to that customer’s lifestyle and intended use.” Identifying a bicycle as a way of getting from A
to B rather than a hobby or fitness tool is key to encouraging a wider acceptance of the S-pedelec, and bicycles in general. Discussing the attitudes of society towards people on
bikes could warrant an essay in itself, but essentially, by making it harder to get hold of an S-pedelec legally, the government opens itself up to having unregistered, more powerful e-bikes on the streets. Gelens added: “I think if we now look at the UK or other new markets, there are two kinds of customers here. The customer who buys a normal e-bike at 25km/h, and tunes it so it goes faster than it’s supposed to go, and it’s very hard to track down or detect. Then you have the speed pedelec where you know it’s going 45km/h, but the customer has two decisions. First of all, are you going to register it? This is often a hard process, and the moment it is registered you have laws applied like where you can drive, the requirement to wear a motorcycle helmet, etc. and it means you’re now in the picture because there’s a licence plate on the back of it. “Or, you decide not to register it and it looks like a normal e-bike, and you can drive in the cycle lanes. And that’s the pain point in this whole setup. We try to lobby it so that all the legislations in the EU and UK will be the same, but it will take a couple of years before the UK will reach this. But the good thing is that we’re all aware that something has to change on the e-mobility side. And the S-pedelec is the perfect tool to give more people the
38 | March 2023
chance to take a bicycle to go to work, to cover bigger distances which they are not able to do with e-mopeds or normal bicycle.”
David Flynn, head of marketing at Hotlines (above) Mathis Gelens, Stromer sales manager (left)
Benefitting riders There’s no doubt there are definite benefits for certain people with an S-pedelec. And that is what cycling and e-mobility are all about – giving more people, more types of people from different backgrounds
and fitness levels the freedom to leave their cars behind. While Stromer targets commuters in their key markets, they’re also seeing some other types of riders purchasing S-pedelecs. Gelens said: “We have seen the people who are buying
bicycles, and they use them for commuting. However, in emerging markets, we see that consumers also use it as a status symbol, or as a fun object to drive. But our philosophy or our vision is purely focusing on the commuting side. We have our slogan, ‘#HereToChange’, where we focus on changing mobility, getting more people out of their cars and putting them on bicycles or S-pedelecs to go to a more sustainable, greener world. Hopefully, the governments will also start pushing more for these types of vehicles.” And unfortunately, there is unlikely to be much more
uptake in the UK until the Government does start pushing for more types of e-bikes. While retailers can guide customers through the steps and ensure they’re well aware of the legislation, there’s also no liability with the retailer to make sure the customer does take out insurance or register the S-pedelec, as Flynn discussed. Flynn added: “Speed-pedelecs will not replace e-bikes
in a store range, nor should they, but as an additional category for the growing number of people looking for alternative commuting methods, the speed pedelec has a bright future – irrespective of the admin steps needed to prepare it for life on the road.”
Thus, the popularity of these types of bikes, and encouraging more entrants to the market is unlikely to prosper until a separate category is introduced. But in the meantime, retailers can continue to point the customer in the right direction, in terms of both registering an S-pedelec or choosing the right type of e-bike for their needs.
www.bikebiz.com
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