Just over a month ago, I was on the stage with Taco Carlier from VanMoof, Tanguy Goretti from Cowboy, Niels Bark from Lekker, Adam Hammerman from Cannondale and Micah Toll from Electrek, discussing the most talked about issues, opportunities and trends in the e-bike industry.
Watch the full panel talk here.
My words on that stage, a few weeks before the industry was shaken by news about VanMoof’s bankruptcy, were:
One of the biggest challenges in our industry is to make sure we have quality over quantity and that we are able to service the bikes. If you grow too big too fast, then very often, that’s not the case anymore.
Our biggest challenge is to maintain customer happiness and product quality. We can do that by standardising e-bikes so that people can either service the bikes themselves or take them to a regular bike shop, so it’s not difficult to manage the product after the purchase.
Tuuli Jevstignejev, CMO at Ampler Bikes
The dust has not yet settled after the news about VanMoof broke on July 18, and it’s been a proper field day for many. It seems like everyone is trying to bite into a piece of the cake now, and it’s a pretty big cake to bite on.
For the past week, I’ve seen how brands pop up almost daily with quick marketing tactics to catch the eyeballs of the VanMoofers who might be stranded.
But instead of keeping our marketing and product team up all night to work on a quick fix and opportunistic marketing message, we will focus on what Ampler is really about and how we try to be and do better.
Ampler is a simple, straightforward and purposeful bike in essence. It’s been built and designed to look and feel like a regular bicycle. The whole purpose of the product is to accommodate different customer needs for frame sizes (and we have a lot) or the possibility of adjusting the bike to their personal needs. And yes, having so many product categories and frame sizes in stock is not always easy. Still, Ampler also never had the ambition to go for the fast hypergrowth path. A good example of having a sustainable growth mentality is that the bikes are all hand assembled in our own factory in Europe, Estonia.
We all have our struggles in the industry; that’s no news in today’s climate, but standardising e-bikes, making sure there is no waste, trading in products and selling them in aftermarket (we just opened a pre-loved aftermarket for our Amplers) is and should be a priority. Yes, we all need funds to survive and being accustomed to getting millions of funding every year has been a norm to grow for most of us, but that’s not the reality for any of us anymore.
So what’s the solution? We still want to get people out of cars and onto bikes, so having a simple product that brings you from point A to point B – which should look good and feel great riding – should be the norm. You should be able to switch your handlebars or pedals if you don’t like the ones you get, you should be able to continue cycling if your battery dies, and you should be able to get a quick fix for your bike from that bike shop down the street that’s been there for 40+ years. E-bikes are here to stay, and more and more of them will be on the roads with each passing year.
My additional thoughts from the previously mentioned panel also reflected on overconsumption. We don’t need to launch a new shiny gadget yearly just to stay in the competition. We should focus on bettering our products, taking care of our after-market, and ensuring all our customers receive the attention they need and that our products serve their purpose. We all need to take responsibility for how and why we do things. Our products are made to last a long time. I myself am still riding our 2018 Curt model on a daily basis.
I’ve always admired the aesthetics of VanMoof, and today, I feel none of us should celebrate their downfall. It doesn’t matter if it’s a direct competitor or not. They’ve done an ace job helping build the e-bike category.
So we keep on doing what we are doing. Building and bettering our bikes, making them as standardised as possible with easy-to-use, easy-to-service, hassle-free and low maintenance, and growing with the mindset that we can still manage our whole customer base. And at the end of the day, we really are all in this together.
Tuuli Jevstignejev, CMO Ampler Bikes