Any Market For Electric Bikes?

[sinewave]

Ive been wanting to build high performance electric bicycles for a long time now, but have a gut feeling that they wont sell in Thailand...but who knows, I may be wrong.

Basicly I want to create a bike that can travel 55 mph on the electric motor with a 50 mile range, but can still be peddled also and weigh less than 50 pounds.

thailand would be a great manufacturing base, but as far as sales are concerned i truly feel that the price is too high for the thai market, considering new battery technology is in its infancy, and still expensive, as well as reluctance to try something new, so exporting may be the only alternative.

ive had people in the past wanting to be partners, but they have no knowledge whatsoever and are just tryng to get rich off of other peoples hardwork...while even suggesting i make 'them' a protoytpe which i have been working on for a very long time, to be kept at their residence, to be exported to their friend in england...while i pay for 50%.

to me this just seems like an extremely stupid thing to do...without any type of intellectual contribution on their part, not even the willingness to learn...when asked they simply say ..."I cant be bothered"

basicly, its now do or die since finances are getting low, so i have to make a decision...these bikes will be the most advanced things on the market.

so, id appreciate any insight anyone may have, regarding their view on the market, and how to get it out to the world, from little old thailand.

[apetley]

Sounds like a great project but to be honest I can't see them being a big seller in Thailand so the market, like you say, would have to be in more developed ie western countries.

To get the range speed and low weight that you want I very much doubt you will find that sort of battery technology in Thailand so you will be looking to import it into Thailand from somewhere else, maybe Japan.

I am no expert but a 'less than 50 pounds' weight seems low to me too so you will need a specialist frame builder and as a keen cyclist have heard of none in Thailand I'm afraid.

Most higher quality frames seem to be sourced in China or Taiwan these days.

Sorry to only come up with a few negatives but I think that this would be a very hard project to get up and running in Thailand and then export out again to where the major markets would be.

Best of luck though and hope that I see one up and running in the future.

[tomartoh]

hi sinewave

i cannot give you a good reason why i dont think electric bikes will work in thailand, but my gut feeling is they wont sell. If you look at what thais buy, mainly honda and to a lot smaller percentage the other japan bikes, and there aversion to home produced bikes like the tiger, its hard to think of them buying into electric. Although there are some on sale in thailand

However, china is a different kettle of fish. In shanghai where i lived and visited until a year or two ago, there are lots of electric bikes and scooters zipping about. would your bikes be more advanced than these? have the chinese the technology?

thailand is not a good place for 'do or die'. be careful

[DeeMaiDee]

Lots of electric bicycles in Thailand, mainly used in the moobaans for shoppong or kids etc. As these bikes prime moves are supplemented with pedals, registration to use public highways is not required.

50Km range at 50Kph is impressive. LA Bicycle Company are marketing electric bikes in LOS perhaps a call to their owners/management would be fruitful for a JV.

Biggest problem with local bikes is the brakes.

Cheers

[sinewave]

Thanks for the replies, pretty much what ive been thinking also.

I have developed a regeneration system that will put back 25% of the power back into the system, with supplementary energy storage for takeoff, that will not draw from the main batteries, for approx 3000 watts ( 50 feet of hard wheelie popping takeoff) then the sytem switches to the main batteries for cruising, while the supplementary system recharges.

If I could just sell 2-3 a month to other countries, I'd be happy with what I'm doing, and would keep food, on the table. Just doing what you dream of doing is what its about for me.

But would people be willing to order a bike from Thailand (distance,cost,quality, etc)? <<< this is what I'm worried about.

[apetley]

But would people be willing to order a bike from Thailand (distance,cost,quality, etc)? <<< this is what I'm worried about.

When I was in the UK I had no problem ordering goods from Hong Kong or China using eBay so hopefully this would not be a problem.

However, what would shipping costs be on a nice bicycle from Thailand to say the States or Europe? Something to bear in mind regards overall cost.

Sounds great though and would love to see a bicycle wheelying or fishtailing away from a set of lights.

[FatherF]

Hi,

You can buy a registered "Street Scoota" in the UK for £995.00 otr, they are made in China, 30mph, 40mile distance, quick charge & long charge. I saw lots of them in China last year.

FF

[khunandy]

Mate, it is a fantastic idea and makes loads of sense. I bought an electric bike back to the village from China, it gave about 30 km @ 35 k/m/h and was a hit with the locals for about 2 days.

A few people wanted one and I would have arranged it but the was two things that they didnt like

One was that it was too quiet and country Thais rely on noise in regard to getting out of the way, I could sort of understand this after frequently having near misses in China.

Number two was that they doubted the reliability and spares availability, I also understand this as the battery swelled up and was rooted after a years use.

Nobody asks about it anymore

[praglen]

I contacted one electric bicycle dealer - Ecobrand - but they're no longer importing them from China. Anyone have the names of other dealers?

Why an electric bicycle? Precisely because they can't go fast(25 kph), the chances of getting killed or maimed in and around Pattaya are a lot less than on a motorbike, they can still go around and thru bumper to bumper traffic and go where baht buses go infrequently and for less money. What's not to like?

[bojo]

This thread is a few months old and died a death. Does anyone know if the project got off the ground or did the OP return home.

I think it's a great idea (55mph is about 80kmh, that's fast enough for around town)and why wouldn't they sell in Thailand (assuming the price was affordable) and the design was good enough?

Regards Bojo