It seems like electric bikes or e-bikes have been getting a substantial amount of interest recently. Here in the suburbs of Detroit, we had a new e-bike shop pop up about a year ago.  And, if you think about the economy of Detroit a year ago, that seems like it would have to have been terrible timing on their part!  However, they are still here and still selling (I have no doubt that even if you don’t live in Detroit, you’ve heard something about the Detroit economy over the past year).  This past summer, even Best Buy jumped on the bandwagon by starting to sell electric bikes and scooters.

All of this would seem to point to a new source of revenue for independent bicycle dealers (IBDs).  However, Bicycle Retailer and Industry New’s blog reported that…

“…the IBD majority still hasn’t bought into carrying electric bikes. More than 40 percent of retailers, in fact, said they weren’t interested or that it wasn’t in their business model to carry electric bikes.” Read the full post here.

That doesn’t seem to be much of a surprise to me.  As one of the comments in the blog post points out, the repair technicians at IBDs are not set up to repair these systems (and these are whole new “systems”).  Additionally, many of the “e-bikes” are not really bikes, but rather electric scooters (which technically is a different classification according to NHTSA).  But more importantly, I suspect that if we were to dive into the marketing efforts of IBDs, we would find that about 30%-40% of these shops are focused on specific demographics or specific bicycle styles.

Shops who are focused on customers who are athletes or weekend warriors (or even those, like me, who pretend to be athletes) have a plan to approach a specific type of customer.  That these dealers would not be planning to adopt e-bikes, shouldn’t be a surprise.  The cost of stocking e-bikes/conversion kits, as well as the training or hiring costs to be able to service this new class of bike (and potentially unfamiliar customer type) would be enough to give pause to most shrewd business folks.

Having said all that, I do suspect that as e-bikes become more prevalent, Currie Technology’s Larry Pizzi is right and we’ll see more IBDs jump on board.  I also think that there will be a greater push into IBDs as Trek, Giant and other large bike manufacturers continue to introduce their e-bike offerings and start pushing the tech out to their dealers.

The growth of the urban/cargo bike segment certainly will play an important role in adoption of e-bikes.  However, e-bikes likely won’t be mainstream in North America until a few key issues are addressed:  First, is a question of technology.  When will the lithium ion batteries come down in price to give e-bikes better power and range without braking the bank?  The second is an infrastructure question.  As electric cars become available and charging stations start showing up at workplaces and public parking lots, e-bikes will have a new source for juice as well, making them even more attractive.  Treehugger.com raises the safety concerns surrounding e-bikes, as they currently can be used in a bike lane.  Those pedaling along at a 8-14mph pace in the bike lanes and paths will be passed increasingly often by 18 or 19mph e-bikes.

This is more than an academic question as Toronto is already questioning whether e-bikes should be pushed out of bike lanes and into traffic. (so to speak)  NYC is finding that they are faced with similar questions of how to deal with e-bikes.  If cyclists in Portland already have problems with cars, just wait until they start getting cut off by e-bikes!

As the technology improves, the demand for urban/cargo bike segment continues to increase, and more electric vehicle infrastructure is available over the next couple of years, IBDs will likely jump on board with traditional bike-style e-bikes (by that I simply mean 26 or 29″ spoke and hub wheels with bike frames, not scooter or small wheel styles).