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Raleigh is one of the oldest bicycle manufacturers in the world and hopes to emulate the success of electric bicycles in food delivery companies in the express delivery industry.
The British bicycle manufacturer was the world’s largest bicycle manufacturer before World War I. It is looking for opportunities to replace polluting trucks used by package delivery groups such as DPD and DHL with greener battery-powered electric cargo bicycles.
“For Raleigh, electric cargo bikes are one of the fastest growing areas in the next four to five years,” said Edward Pegram, business partner manager of Raleigh UK, which launched its first electric cargo bike in September.
“Raleigh is a brand that places great emphasis on leisure. This is a brand for everyone. We are not exclusive. But electric cargo bikes have opened up opportunities for us to enter the commercial market.”
The pandemic has led to the emergence of a new electric bicycle market in Europe, which is part of a broader boom in global demand for two-wheelers as people try to avoid public transportation and have extra cash to spend.
Pegram estimates that last year all manufacturers sold 2,000 electric cargo bikes in the UK, also known as “box bikes” or “bike bikes”, designed to carry more than just riders, and may double in 2021 .
According to data from the trade body Bicycle Association, the rapid use of electric bicycles by last-mile delivery workers helped the British electric bicycle market double last year to 280 million pounds compared to pre-pandemic levels.
However, the adoption rate of electric bicycles in the UK still lags far behind its European counterparts. In 2020, electric-assisted models account for 5% of the country’s total bicycle sales, while in Germany and the Netherlands it is close to half.
“According to our predictions, in the next three to four years, every bicycle in the core European market should be an electric bicycle,” said Klaus Fleischer, CEO of Bosch Electric Bike Systems last month.
Mina Nada, CEO of Zoomo, a startup that manufactures and leases electric bicycles for food distribution groups, said that a turning point in the sales of electric bicycles in the UK was the rapid growth of last-mile grocery delivery services during the epidemic.
Other bicycle manufacturers are leading the way in providing e-bikes for last-mile food delivery companies such as Uber Eats, which are now found everywhere outside restaurants in major British cities.
Raleigh, a subsidiary of Accell, which is headquartered in the Netherlands, is cautious about joining the competition to obtain electric bike orders from cost-conscious food delivery groups.
But Pegram said that its foray into electric cargo bikes-each priced at approximately £4,000 to 5,000-has attracted the attention of companies such as Deliveroo and Just Eat, who are weighing the benefits of using them.
Last-mile delivery drivers use electric bicycles with larger batteries to last eight-hour shifts and use more powerful motors to handle heavier loads.
Gig workers usually need to buy or rent their own vehicles, while employees use electric bicycles purchased by the company.
However, supply chain difficulties have proven to be a problem faced by bicycle manufacturers. The shortage of gears and brake components and long delivery times make it difficult to meet the surge in demand for bicycles, including electric bicycles.
Post time: Aug-17-2021