Just curious: when spending that amount of money is it specific materials/features you're looking for that the lower end bikes don't have or the reputation (quality/durability/other) that makes it worthwhile to you?
I knew a few people into old school (i.e. manual drive) bikes that would pay that much for competition-grade bikes made from state of the art materials to shave every last ounce off the bike's weight. Just trying to understand what it is about the e-bikes that makes this kind of pricing worth it to enthusiasts.
Speaking about cycling. Something I don't understand about bikes and e-bikes is their price. Why are they so incredibly expensive? How come economies of scale haven't made them dirt cheap?
Nowadays you can buy a great bike for $1000 and be totally satisfied with it, ride it for years, or you can shell out $15000 for the top of the line model. And I'm talking about regular bikes, not e-bikes.
To clarify: I personally don't see them as expensive. My neighbour who bought an e-bike this year called them expensive, because they were well above the cheapest things on offer.
They have some fine features that IMO justify their prices, but I'm guessing that I'm an outlier wrt judging bike values and my neighbour more mainstream, so I called them expensive.
I'm really baffled at (e-)bike prices remaining so high. There's certainly not more research than what goes into cars, admittedly amortized over smaller production runs, and battery packs should (should, but don't) cost very little (at 100$/KWh, my bike's pack should be a whopping 43 bucks, let's say 100 if we include the frame mount, the lock, the wiring and the charger).
There is SO LITTLE material overall in a bike, with 99% of the tech having changed little since the '70s, so I guess it's not patents or IP either. It's not the wheels, I can buy replacements for little. It's not the shifting system, a crappy one is 100 EUR and a decent (low-end) Shimano is under 200. It's not the chain, those are 10 bucks, maybe 25 for the higher strength ones appropriate for an e-bike. It's not the motor, as I can get a conversion kit off ebay for 150-200, which includes a wheel and electronics.
Yet, 25kg of ebike costs 12% of 1000kg of a low end city car, while using 40 times less material and not having to undergo all the same rigorous testing, homologation and what else.
What am I missing? Is it all in the frame? Is it all profit? Am I looking at this from a completely wrong perspective ?
IMO this is the reason e-bike subsidies would be a gamechanger. Because everyone else replying on this thread is correct: when you know you want to get into the e-bike lifestyle you want great quality components and the start price for those is $3k and up. $4.5k for cargo bikes.
If you don’t know it’s going to fit your life that’s a lot of money to throw on a bet. I wasn’t sure so I bought a budget bike, a RadPowerBikes Radwagon. And it’s… fine. The components aren’t great. The gears are janky. The brakes are insufficient given the weight and speed the bike is capable of. But it’s $2k and if it didn’t exist I don’t think I would ever have dropped $4.5k on one of the better specced alternatives.
The sad thing is that $2k barely gets you a carbon frame with low end components now. A mid tier bike is maybe $5k, and high end can easily be more than $10k.
Personally I really don't get why anyone would pay $10k for a bike. Amateurs won't benefit nearly enough to make it worth it, and pros are of course sponsored.
By much you mean the weight of the motor, which actually is not the main weight of the bike. Batteries tend to be removable or easy to gut.
The frames may sometimes be a bit more heavy duty, but usually aren't.
The motor is noticeable on a super light carbon bike but not really on aluminum and definitely not on steel frame.
5-10 times more expensive is also a lie, at most I've seen 2x over comparable non-electric. (Though instead it should be a flat price increase.)
Thing is, many ebikes are in premium segment. But there are many cheap ones as well.
Good e-bikes could be much cheaper, simpler and more reliable than the current most popular models with complex and frail gears and brakes. Expensive mechanical parts are also used to justify expensive e-parts.
Whenever I go looking online at e-bikes, I'm always dismayed by what seems like artificially inflated pricing. It's difficult to believe that the engineering and manufacturing of most of these bikes justifies their 100+% premium over standard bikes.
There are some very clever e-bikes, and perhaps their prices are reasonable. But there are a lot of bikes which are standard models with an added Bosch motor on the crank and a battery clipped to the frame.
I've paid that much for an ebike, but it's a high-end machine that will go 25 MPH and lasts forever if maintained properly. I expect GM to get creamed in the market here, this bike looks very cheap for that price range. (You can buy ebikes that cost $10,000, if you have infinite money there's always someone who will take it.)
I think you and op are missing the point though. This is a light weight ebike! Obviously it's not as light weight as a professional bike (or like any without a battery), but this cuts weight everywhere it can and still has a 45 mile range (plus an extended battery you can add on to extend the range).
On top of that people are already spending thousands of dollars on ebikes- this really isn't that much more expensive than a much shittier version. The "best ebike" according to Wired last year is the exact same price as this one but weighs five pounds more.
I paid $800 for a bicycle in 2008, have put thousands of miles on it, gone through three chains, two cranks, perhaps a half dozen tires. All that for maybe $200-$300 of total cost. That’s equivalent to four or five low-end car payments. And the bike is in great shape and has thousands more miles in it. Doesn’t seem to bad when you compare actual quality bicycles meant to last.
$10,000+ is the price range for e-bikes and ultralight AXS/Di2 configurations. About the only aspect comparable to the €350 bike you describe is they have two vastly different wheels.
I knew a few people into old school (i.e. manual drive) bikes that would pay that much for competition-grade bikes made from state of the art materials to shave every last ounce off the bike's weight. Just trying to understand what it is about the e-bikes that makes this kind of pricing worth it to enthusiasts.
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