Dutch company among the winners in new bike market
Growing up in the Netherlands, with its network of pathways, its flat landscape and its bicycle-friendly traffic laws, brothers Ties and Taco Carlier were commuting with their parents on bikes by age 4. Many families in the country didn’t own cars.
But traveling to New York and other cities as adults, the Carliers realized that few people commuted on bikes in the same way they did back home, turned off by sprawl, hills and weather. The experience planted the seed for what would become one of the world’s hottest bicycle brands.
In a bike market remade by the pandemic, VanMoof, the Dutch ebike company started by the brothers, has been among the biggest winners. With a simple and stylish design and clever integration of technology, the company has drawn comparisons to Apple and Tesla and has attracted a loyal and fast-growing customer base among urban professionals in Europe and the United States.
Sales of the batterypowered bikes more than tripled during the pandemic, and the company has raised more than $150 million from venture capitalists who don’t typically bet on bicycles.
“We wanted to change the bike in the way it functions, but also from a technology perspective,” Ties Carlier said.
“Amsterdam is very small and flat, but most cities in the rest of the world are very hilly and can be really hot in the summer, and the distances are much further,” he said. “But those limitations really change completely when you have electric bikes.”
Once seen by consumers as unreliable, expensive and ugly, batterypowered bikes are now one of the fastest-growing forms of urban transportation. With simplified designs, new corporate and government incentive policies and more awareness about the environmental benefits of cycling versus driving, VanMoof estimates industry sales will hit $46 billion by 2026, double pre-pandemic predictions.
Changes to urban transportation prompted by the pandemic can be seen around the world, with commuters having abandoned public transit because of COVID fears.
VanMoof did not make battery-powered bikes when the brothers started the company in 2009. A breakthrough came in 2014 when they came up with a design that put the costly and temperamental battery inside the bike frame, helping protect it from rain, thieves and other risks. Putting the battery out of sight had the added benefit of giving the bike a more straightforward design.
At $3,500 for the latest models, the cost of a VanMoof bike will scare off many prospective customers. The company said it was targeting not cycling enthusiasts but commuters who might see a battery-powered bike as a good alternative to public transportation or owning a car. “This will only really work if we design a bike that is specifically for transportation to go from point A to B in a city,” Carlier said.
VanMoof bikes now come with three gears that shift automatically based on speed, and they can go about 90 miles per charge. A boost button on the handlebar gives riders an acceleration push of up to 20 mph to get up a hill or to start quickly from traffic lights.
VanMoof does not rely on third-party sellers. Its bikes are sold directly by the company online or at its shops in cities including London, Paris and Munich. VanMoof designs most of its components itself, rather than relying on suppliers in Taiwan or China, which helps it produce a more integrated design but has added manufacturing and supply chain challenges. Carlier lives in Taiwan to oversee the company’s manufacturing and production, while his brother is in Amsterdam.
Horace Dediu, a technology analyst who has been studying urban mobility, said e-bikes are still a niche product but that their popularity would continue to grow swiftly. He said the business reminded him of the early days of the mobile phone market, before it was revolutionized by the iPhone and when there were many more brands making different models.
“Somebody will step up,” he said. “It could be VanMoof; it could be somebody else.”