In early May, as the epidemic eased in Europe, countries began to gradually “unlock”. Europeans are finally getting out and about, but are still afraid to take public transport, and have started snapping up electric bikes for transportation.
China’s exports of bicycles and electric bikes skyrocketed, even the top-end models were snapped up completely. With workers work overtime, orders are scheduled to be filled 1 month later.
Data from Alibaba’s cross-border e-commerce platform, AliExpress, showed that sales of bicycles in the Spanish market rose more than 22 times in May, while Italy and the UK also rose about four times. Sales of electric bikes also rose sharply, with Italy up nearly nine times, the UK up nearly eight times, France up 380%, and Spain up 280% in volume.
“The stock was sold out. The second batch was sold out while being shipped, and the third batch are 3,4 times bigger.” Bruce Lee, founder of electric bike brand Janobike, said sales have grown since returning to work in March, with a 30-40% month-over-month increase. At present, Janobike cooperates with high-end frame manufacturers have been working at full capacity 24 hours a day, even by “going through the back door”. Guo Zhenhe for the bicycle brand SAVA’s AliExpress, said that since April orders rose more than 30 percent, production capacity is tight, the original order can be shipped within three days, new order will have to wait at least a week.
For electric bike brand Sheng Milo, in May, orders on the AliExpress doubled compared to April. He Chong, the company’s head of operations, said, “Workers work overtime until 12 o’clock every day and orders are still scheduled for a month later.” Sheng Milo is doubling both the size of the plant and the number of workers.
Electric bikes and bicycles are normally priced in the European market at around $1,000 and the high-end models at over $1,600, equivalent to more than RMB 10,000. “Local governments in Europe provided subsidies to encourage riding, and with the subsidies, the low end models are cheap and the high end models are like low end ones for the price. The second phase of the Italian resumption of work, which took place on 4 May, in order to encourage alternative travel and limit public transport congestion, the Government provides subsidies of up to 500€ for the purchase of bicycles and electric bikes. The French Government has announced a 20-million-€ funding plan to encourage cycling in France following the national “un-lockdown” on 11 May. Business owners will also receive government funding to provide a transport subsidy of €400 per person for employees who commute by bike.
In the bicycle and electric vehicle industry, China has a complete supply chain from components to the completely assembled bikes. “China exports more than 70 percent of the global bicycles market share, and even more for electric bikes.” Li Kai, head of the Sports Category at AliExpress said, “The price/performance ratio of Chinese products is significant, and overseas demand has been strong.”
With the epidemic, the overseas retail stores closed down, consumers have chosen online shopping, through the e-commerce platform AliExpress, ushered in a surge of orders in a number of categories. In order to ensure the smooth delivery during the epidemic, AliExpress has expanded the warehouse in Spain, to ensure uninterrupted delivery to France, Belgium, Poland and other countries. Merchants use China-European trains to send goods to European warehouses, which takes more than half a month less than if by sea. With the AliExpress warehouse system in Europe, bicycles and the larger electric bikes, generally reach consumers in 3 days, 7 days for the pan-European regions.