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Mia Nulimaimaiti

On the bustling streets of London, like many city dwellers, Liam commutes to work – but unlike most, he rides a Chinese-made electric bike.
The 29-year-old Dutch accountant bought his two-wheeled bicycle, equipped with an electric control system and battery, for £300 (US$398) from Facebook’s second-hand market.
“I didn’t care where the product was made; I just wanted a more environmentally friendly way to travel,” said the Amsterdam native.
“I was surprised to learn it came from China after browsing the product details on Amazon.”
In the West, many environmentally consciousness young consumers are opting for e-bikes as their preferred mode of transport, a trend further fuelled by rising inflation and soaring fuel prices.
Compared to electric vehicles (EVs) priced around US$45,000, e-bikes typically range from US$600 to US$1,000, and they are also much more budget friendly.
Chinese producers can offer really cheap prices, it is really helpful for the environment and people with a limited budget.
Han Zhibin, Guangdong-based e-bike producer
Similar to its dominance in EVs, China is also a leader in the e-bike market, driven by competitive pricing and vast production capacity.
“Many of the bestselling e-bikes overseas are actually made in China, because manufacturers provide lower prices and quicker delivery,” according to Han Zhibin, an e-bike producer based in Guangdong province in southern China.
Han and his team began producing e-bikes on an original equipment manufacturer basis in 2018, meaning they produced parts and equipment to be marketed by another manufacturer.
But this year, Han launched his own e-bike company, Adina, in Dongguan, Guangdong province, to make more differentiated products, which are primarily sold to the United States, Europe, Russia and Southeast Asia.
“Since the pandemic until last year, our orders have been doubling annually, with most demand coming from the US and the Netherlands,” Han said.
“In the end, Chinese producers can offer really cheap prices, it is really helpful for the environment and people with a limited budget.”


On short-form video platform TikTok, some Chinese e-bike manufacturers are showcasing their products, attracting inquiries from users in the likes of the Netherlands, Ghana, Azerbaijan and Kenya.
“The majority of e-bikes come from Guangdong, this single province can produce 4.8-6 million e-bikes a year,” Han added.
Guangdong’s output accounts for around 10 per cent of global e-bike production, according to Chinese new energy research think tank EVTank, which reported 67.4 million e-bikes were produced globally last year.
Last year, China had over 60 per cent of the global e-bike capacity, with 738 companies operating at scale and collectively producing 42.28 million units, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
And in the first nine months of 2024, China exported 16.71 million e-bikes, with over half shipped to the US and Europe, according to customs data.
“Many Chinese producers name their products in a style reminiscent of Japanese or German brands to obscure their origins, because Western consumers often view e-bikes from China as low-end and low-quality, even if the products are well-made,” Han said.
The influx of hot money investment has led to aggressive price-cutting
Han Zhibin, Guangdong-based e-bike producer
On e-commerce site Amazon, e-bike brands Hyper, Duotts, Hyuhome, Hitway and Bodywel are from China.
The official websites of Hitway and Bodywel offer English, German and Polish, as well as other European language options, but notably not Chinese. They also do not disclose their company address or any information indicating their origin. The companies did not respond to requests for comment.
As a result of the high profitability, more Chinese businesses are investing in e-bike production and overseas sales. However, their products are largely similar, with the price one of the distinguishing factors, Han added.
“Everyone wants to seize this e-bike trend, even home appliance manufacturers are making e-bikes too.” he said. “Now there are too many producers and the influx of hot money investment has led to aggressive price-cutting so that they can get more customers and strangle other competitors.”
The European Union had already imposed 80 per cent anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Chinese e-bikes in 2018.
And in January, the EU Commission launched a review of the measures, to determine if ending them would likely lead to continued dumping of the products from China and harm the industry within the bloc.

“If their investigation shows that subsidies and dumping by Chinese producers of e-bikes still pose a threat to European producers, then the measures are likely to remain in place,” said Alexander Brown, senior analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies.
And although the aggressive pricing strategies benefit consumers, they risk creating unfair competition for producers in other countries, especially when Chinese producers sell their e-bikes at a loss or are dependent on subsidies to generate a profit, he said.
The European Bicycle Manufacturers Association said “over 1,200 sustainable manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises and 180,000 [environmentally friendly] jobs in the EU bike industry are at stake” due to cheap Chinese e-bikes.
The price war for Chinese products is not limited to overseas markets, as domestically, various industries, including cars, home appliances and catering, are aggressively slashing prices as consumer spending declines, creating a prolonged pressure deflation.
Brown said Beijing could still curb investment in the e-bike sector by restricting financing through the state-controlled banking system and withdrawing other support measures granted by central and local governments.
“However, it is unlikely to do so for two reasons. Firstly, the government is reluctant to tackle overcapacity issues in numerous sectors due to the resultant job losses, especially the current economic headwinds facing China,” he said.
“Secondly, the e-bike sector aligns closely with Beijing’s ambitions to be a global leader in green technologies, and to leverage its strength in battery technologies to grow other sectors.”

In an editorial in September, the state-backed Xinhua News Agency rebutted the overcapacity argument and said it served as a tactic to leverage public opinion to hinder China’s industrial advancement.
“China’s new energy sector, often labelled as ‘overcapacity’ by the West, has significantly contributed to the green transformation of developing economies and has been widely embraced by these nations,” it said.
In the early 2000s, Chinese motorbike manufacturers expanded their footprint into overseas markets, selling a large number of cheap products to Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, and quickly replacing Japanese manufacturers.
However, a fierce price war made many manufacturers neglect the quality of their products.
The price cuts that ended in the early 2000s, but numerous low-quality motorcycles in Vietnam with subpar maintenance significantly damaged the reputation of Chinese brands.
“Despite China making good-quality e-bikes, it is still difficult for the country to catch up with the technology of Japan or Germany, [two countries that] have many years of mature experience in the bike-related field,” Han said.
“And the current price war is not doing any favours for Chinese producers. Some manufacturers might squeeze the quality of their products to earn profits in this rat race, and gradually the bad money will drive out the good.”
While we will certainly see pushback from competitors, it does not substantively affect China’s long-term goals to move up the value-added ladder
Lynn Song, ING
But not all European countries favour tariffs, with the UK’s Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) considering revoking the levies inherited from its membership of the EU, as it could save £51 million (US$67.7 million) per year.
The TRA stated that while the dumping and subsidisation of Chinese e-bikes would likely resume without the measures, causing some harm to the UK production industry, the overall benefits to the British economy and its consumers would outweigh any potential losses if the measures were revoked.
“We project that removing the measures could save consumers around £260 per e-bike,” said TRA chief executive Oliver Griffiths.
Lynn Song, chief China economist at ING, said China’s ability to produce quality goods at lower prices was justifiable from a free market viewpoint, but it could be viewed as unfair for overseas competitors given its subsidies and policy support.
“While we will certainly see pushback from competitors, it does not substantively affect China’s long-term goals to move up the value-added ladder,” he said.
“Many other countries are very happy to import high quality and cost-effective Chinese products, as we can see from the electric car example.”
Much like its EVs, Chinese e-bikes would also face pressure for additional tariffs, as the levies seem to mostly target similar cases where Chinese production threatens local industries’ competitiveness, he added.


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China’s e-bikes offer a budget and environmentally friendly option for consumers, but governments and competitors abroad have raised concerns


China’s e-bikes offer a budget and environmentally friendly option for consumers, but governments and competitors abroad have raised concerns.
