‘The electric bike is coming big time’
Torrot, who make GasGas petrol engines, are also an electric bike manufacturer, and you have recently acquired Pexco, the German company that was the premier E-bicycle company in Europe – and folded it into Husqvarna electric. Where does that process put the launch of electric Husqvarnas?
By the end of last year we had integrated Pexco’s E-bicycle operation 100% into our Group. At the beginning of this year in January we had a projected turnover of around €90 million for 2020, so around 65,000 units. But that was before Corona when sales took off, so now it will end up at around €110 million of sales, representing 75,000 units. So the electric bicycle is the real Corona era product, because of course everybody can ride an electric bicycle – you don’t need a driver’s licence for it.
To what extent are you and Bajaj collaborating on this E-sector, or are you each going your own way with it?
We are collaborating quite closely on the small displacement, low voltage electric products. So we have jointly developed a 4kW and 8/10kW electric motor, and that powertrain platform can be used for the different brands and from a scooter to a motorcycle. Our first interpretation of the scooter using the Husqvarna brand is 100% based on the Bajaj Chetak scooter which is already in the market in India, where we’re using the rolling chassis and doing our own design interpretation.
But for sure we’re working on our own Husqvarna E-motorcycles as well – we’re convinced in the potential of the so-called small displacement class, from the electric equivalent to a 50cc twostroke up to around 125cc. Electric is becoming especially important in central urban areas, where to avoid restrictions or even outright bans on mobility with combustion engined vehicles, we have to use electric.
So for sure the electric bike is
‘The electric bicycle is the real Corona era product’
coming big time. We were one of the pioneers in the electric bike segment, firstly with a highvoltage concept before all the disadvantages of that became clear, with the various safety issues relating to logistics, warehousing, dealerships and so on.
But on such a bike, the customer is also expecting huge mileage, and that necessitates a big battery pack and then you are losing your profitability.
But now we’ve finally recognised how it works best commercially, with a low-voltage 48V 15kW powerpack – that’s quite enough.