TAIPEI, Taiwan (BRAIN) — Taiwanese e-bike exports were up 34 percent in units and 55 percent in dollars through April, as the country's bicycle industry rapidly gears up to supply e-bikes to the world.
The European Union is enacting tariffs ranging from 80 percent to 170 percent on e-bikes made in China, and the U.S. is threatening a 25 percent tariff on Chinese e-bikes as well, causing suppliers to increasingly look to the island for production.
"With the attractiveness of lower-priced, mass-market Chinese e-bikes now drastically reduced due to protective tariffs in the substantial American and European markets, Taiwanese manufacturers are perfectly poised to exploit this opening for their own e-bikes," read a news release from the Taipei Cycle Show organizers this week.
The Taiwan Bicycle Association, which provided the export figures cited in the release, said e-bike exports through the first four months year totaled 83,000 units, valued at $113 million. Standard bike exports were down nearly 12 percent for the period, to 740,000 units.
Taiwan was Europe's second largest source of e-bikes last year, behind China. The volume of e-bikes Taiwan is shipping there has skyrocketed — the 2017 total of 126,000 bikes was three times the number from 2015, according to Eurostat figures quoted in the release.
The U.S. remains Taiwan's biggest export market for bikes, accounting for 22 percent of its total bike industry export revenue last year. The average value of bikes exported to the U.S. rose sharply in the first third of 2018 — up by nearly 30 percent to $588.
The total value of Taiwan bike exports to the U.S. during this period increased by over 14 percent, from $381,644,094 to $435,670,435.
Taiwan's derailleur makers also are doing well: the number of derailleurs exported this year was up 72 percent through April.
