BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Gates has furthered its efforts to break deeper into the electric bike market by becoming a Bronze level sponsor of the Light Electric Vehicle Association.
With over 250 members from 29 countries, LEVA is the largest electric bike trade association worldwide. Gates hopes that the partnership will ‘alert consumers and manufacturers about the benefits of belt drives on eBikes’. Pedal-assist bikes are currently the fastest growing area within Gates’ OEM business.
More than a million electric bikes were sold in Europe in 2012, and that number is ‘expected to double’ in 2014, according to LEVA. In the United States, sales topped 100,000 last year and the trade body expects that will double in 2013. Sales could hit 40 million worldwide in 2015, according to the annual Electric Bike Worldwide Report written and published by Dr. Frank Jamerson.
“Electric bikes are transforming the bicycle industry and providing people around the world with an efficient, sustainable and affordable form of transportation,” said Frank Scurlock, global sales director for Gates Carbon Drive. “LEVA is giving this industry a voice and is doing great work to educate the public, bicycle brands and policymakers about the benefits of electric bikes.”
Gates now plans to work on a series of seminars, training workshops and technical Q&A session, which it will present alongside LEVA at key events.
At Eurobike 2013, Gates Carbon Drive introduced its own belt drive specific crank set, as well as sprockets that will integrate with eBike motors from Bosch, BionX, SRAM, MPF, GO SwissDrive, and Höganäs. Furthermore, sprockets to be compatible with Yamaha, NuVinci and Panasonic are expected shortly.
As well as the launch of a new website, the belt drive specialists has strengthened its teams in Europe, the USA and Asia with new recruits within both engineering and technical support.
