The Explosion of Electric Bike
Borrow founder Jon Alain Guzik is optimistic about the growth of the E-Bike market. The RadWagon, center, is one of the most popular models on the market.
Jon Alain Guzik on the Growth of Electric Bikes
by Tom Hindle
Jon, let’s talk about electric bikes, which went from an emerging concept to a rapidly expanding market in the last 18 month or so. What do you make of this trend?
The e-Bike market is exploding, especially since COVID put the world in this terrible lockdown, sales have exploded, think about this, according to The Verge, between January and October 2020 more than $4.1 billion worth of e-bikes were sold in the US. There have been estimates that there will be more than 300 million electric bikes sold worldwide by 2023. That’s just a crazy number.
Why do you think this is happening?
If you think about mobility, the easiest way to get anywhere is walking, of course, but that takes a long time and isn’t always feasible. I feel like walking is one of those things that people do to supplement driving or, during lockdown, when you have more time to get from place to place. People love riding bikes - and since there were less cars on the road, it feels like a safer activity - but with an electric bike, it gives you the feeling of freedom of a bike and some assistance from an electric motor when you need to traverse long distances or up bigger hills. I think it’s the best of all worlds and way safer than an electric scooter. Also, it’s not like an electric motorcycle or moped, where you're going to go 80 miles an hour by twisting the throttle. A lot of these e-bikes top out at around 20 miles an hour.
Which companies are making the biggest splash right now?
A lot of these companies are raising big sums to scale and have massive social media followings too. For example, Super 73, they just raised $20 million. Their bikes are cool and they're halfway between like a vintage bicycle and a tiny motorcycle, they look and perform really well. They're meant to be more of a luxury item and cost around $3,000. That’s a little more expensive than a lot of the e-bikes in the marketplace.
Who else should we know about?
VanMoof is a Dutch based company who raised $40 million last fall to expand their bicycle sales in Europe and the states. VanMoof’s bikes are really well designed and look like something from the future by way of the past. But the biggest one of them all is RadPower bikes. Personally, I love their bikes. They just raised $150 million to scale and RadPower is saying it's the biggest bike boom in history.
I own a RadPower bike, I have their RadPower Wagon with a lot of accessories to make it function like the cargo van of e-Bikes. I live in this area with a lot of hills and because I'm on such a big bike, I feel safe when I'm riding on the streets of LA. But the nice thing is I can also put my daughter on the back, or I can put groceries on it if I wanted to go to the market and do that kind of stuff.
RadPower bikes have hit a perfect combination of what an electric bike should be - they're not making a sports bike, but are making their bikes a little more utilitarian, which is a good place to be. The RadPower Wagon is like the SUV of e-bikes. 20 mile an hour top speed, 50 mile range. The one I have starts about 1700 bucks and it kind of goes up from there, depending on what accessories you put on it. But to me, it's like the best of all worlds when I don't want to take my EV to work or I don't want to walk somewhere. I can just kind of hop on my bike and put whatever I need on the bike.
So, where do e-Bikes go from here?
I think it's going to be a growing market segment. It may not be a 100% replacement for cars but if you've got a good e-bike that’s functional and durable, it's a nice alternative to a car, especially if you live someplace with good weather and you can ride year round. Really, I can only see the market getting bigger and bigger from here.
Borrow is an electric vehicle subscription company with one goal: to make driving an EV as simple and accessible as possible. Borrow is the only electric vehicle subscription service of its kind with a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and decarbonizing the everyday drive.