In this issue:
A Confused and Confusing Scooter Market This Year!
How to Sell Through to Consumers – A Conference in Florida
Cheap Vs. Good
Notes on the Industry
Classified Advertisements

Confusion in the Scooter Market!
Electric Scooters (small stand up scooters) continue to sell well, but the market has shifted primarily to the mass merchant selling $199 – $249 retail scooters. Most of these are made in China, and most of them have high (very high!) return rates. The retailers and the consumers are not too happy with this.
The small independent retailer, who sold most of these scooters in99-2000, has mostly retired from the scooter market – unable to compete on price, and, significantly, the scooters that were provided to the independents in 98 through 2000, were only marginally better in actual customer satisfaction and reliability than the current crop of mass merchant cheapies.
Adding to the confusion is the blow out pricing of Total EV as they liquidate an inventory that was estimated to be as high as 32,000 pieces. The Interbike show saw a booth manned by senior management of TEV and AEP (The parent company of TEV) with scooters priced well below 100.00 USD to retailers. Even with the need to replace batteries and to address quality and defective component issues on some of these scooters – this pricing paralyzed sales for most legitimate scooter makers and importers. The good news for the industry is that the bulk of the TEV inventory is almost gone.
There is widespread belief that that small stand up scooters will become a permanent feature of the USA market. And it is believed that the kids who are using (and breaking) today’s cheapies will turn to their parents and ask for better quality scooters in the near future.
Where will these come from? See the article below on Cheap Vs. Good.
Electric bicycles have suffered a similar dynamic, as closeout pricing from TEV has caused paralysis in the lines that TEV carried. However, sales appear to be good for EV Global, Giant, and ETC.
Despite the Zap PR Powerhouse, Zap has not been a real player in the market for electric bikes for the past 3 years.

Industry Conference
CycleElectric will be hosting a conference to discuss the distribution and retail sales of electric bikes and scooters. The industry knows how to build them, how to import them, and how to sell them to distributors. However, selling them through to retail consumers has not been satisfactory. The industry needs marketing, dealer training, rep and sales force training, and consumer education programs.
About 30 – 50 attendees are expected, including manufacturers, distributors, retailers and consumers will be invited to Ft. Myers Florida for a mid winter conference. Stay tuned for more details. Information from ebenjamin at cycleelectric dot com Hotel, fees, and dates are still being determined.

Good Vs. Bad Quality
Bad scooters are discussed above – customers break them and return them, and they may not buy another.
Good scooters are available, and this author’s opinion is that the Tomb Raider, the HCF Scooters, and the Bikit Scooters are currently the leaders in quality scooters that are available in the USA now. They are more expensive, but they have better construction, better service back up and better quality throughout. For information on where to buy these, contact CycleElectric. If you want to sell al scooter that just simply works and is not returned by the buyer, these are the first choices.
Good Features: Chrome moly steel frames, powder coat or chrome finish, strong reliable motors, fresh batteries by quality makers, trouble free chargers that can charge quickly, proven designs, strong brakes, quality tires and wheels, secure folding mechanisms, good service back up. A well designed and manufactured controller.
Bad Features on the Cheapies: Mild steel frames (bend or break), poorly applied paint (rusts), weak, low quality motors (poor performance and reliability), poor welds (break), old batteries (poor to really, really poor performance), cheap chargers (don’t work or take hours and hours to charge), poor brakes (don’t stop), poor quality tires and wheels (flat tires, bent wheels), folding mechanisms that fold unexpectedly (people get hurt), no service back up (nothing enrages a customer more than being unable to get service help or being told it will be 2 months and a 20.00 dollar fee to get a warranty part – and yes, they are being told that buy at least one company.) Poor quality or exposed controllers are big and expensive trouble for consumers.

Notes on the Industry:
EWI (Electric Wheels International) has moved into it’s new warehouse / offices. Currently has deals with HCF, ETC and Merida to distribute their bikes and scooters. Gary Coffrin, long time bike guy is President,.
EV Global has moved out of its long time Wilshire Blvd Office and is now in the Planet Electric building in LA. EVG has a new President, Greg Hoffman, and business appears to be growing. Interbike show saw EVG products with Schwinn and Mongoose labels being shown.. Planet Electric is equipping EVG folding bikes with a Li-Ion battery package and selling them through the Big Planet network marketing organization.
EV Rider has hired Greg Byron, a legend in the bicycle business, as Sales Manager to sell their extensive line of scooters from HCF, EV Rider, JD Components and others.
Prima (Electric Bicycles from Italy) has a new distributor – Matrix, the USA motorcycle helmet powerhouse will be selling these handsome and high tech bikes. First showing of the new models Joe Fly, Joe Guy, and Light at Interbike.
Heinzmann has a hot, really hot, new scooter built in cooperation with HCF. Distribution in the USA is still being determined – but this scooter is the best ever shown, and will not be cheap. Heinzmann retrofit kits and bicycles are now being sold by the LEVT service center. (LEVTUSA@AOL.COM)
Rad2Go is looking like the Chinese Scooter powerhouse. A wide array of scooters and an aggressive sales effort is making them a powerful player. A recent purchase of sophisticated controllers from Agile has created an interesting mix of North American and Chinese technology.
MAC BMC, maker of high quality brushless DC motors has introduced a new hub motor. Light weight and sleek in appearance, no test rides are available yet.
Big Roc Tools of California is selling the HCF Cute 2 and 4 Wheel.
Panasonic is entering the USA market with a folding bike. Now available from Electric Vehicles Northwest in Seattle.
Aprillia’s exciting fuel cell prototype made the cover of Popular Science – and rumors are that some Aprillia motorcycle shops will have the battery version of this bike soon.
There were almost no Americans at the IFMA show in Cologne. No surprise as most Americans traveling to the show were trapped in various airports on Sept 11. The author made it 40 minutes before the show closed. Extra Energy was there in force, of course.
EICMA in Milano was well attended, and the main event for the electric bike and scooter people were the many distributors and retailers exploring the possibility of selling small stand up and sit down scooters in Europe. In most places, these are not yet legal – but progress is being made and the market seems promising.
Next Show for Electric Bike and Scooter people: Tokyo Cycle Show, and next spring the Taipei Bicycle Show (with another Pedelec and E Bike Conference scheduled at the same time.)

Advertisements:
Salespeople wanted for telephone sales of electric scooters. Send resume to ebenjamin at cycleelectric dot com
Dealers wanted for the Tomb Raider Scooter, call 1-208-478-5388
For Replacement batteries for all types of electric bikes and scooters, call 1-208-478-5388
Copyright October, 2001, by CycleElectric International