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For Zedler safety and price are closely related to one another. The design of a safe product and the assembly of a safe bicycle would require a lot of effort: Every single part had to be tested before being released for series production and during series production the quality had to be checked continuously. These measures again cost money. Taking account of the increased requirements and clearly higher ranges in connection with the always increasing weight of the bicycles the quality especially of pedelecs must therefore be held at a continuously high level. And safety expert Zedler adds that he would not see why putting strong pressure on the prices because pedelecs were not yet troublefree at current prices and would cause a lot of trouble to the manufacturers. He expresses another fear: At least battery safety were no longer a problem for quality manufacturers. However, the use of less expensive components by more and more suppliers could increase the number of batteries sold that do not meet the safety level of established manufacturers.
“From the expert’s reports department we know that the reports for courts relating to pedelecs due to quality and safety problems are rising significantly. The share of pedelecs in our experts’ reports department is clearly higher compared to the share in the market according to the usual statistics. For this reason I would like to see the manufacturers investing higher returns partly created by e-bikes into a reasonable quality and testing system”, states Zedler. His suggestion: Pedelecs must be categorized in the medium run, not only in terms of design and possible determined use, but also in terms of usability with regard to possible ranges. Zedler knows dissatisfied pedelec riders commuting regularly who had to buy additional brake pads and chains by the dozen. These components would partly not meet the requirements of these simple and frequent rides to work. Whether the customer buys a pedelec that matches his range has been depending on the retailer to date.
Author: Tillman Lambert
From the editorial:
Dirk Zedler
The expert in terms of safety requests new categories for pedelecs according to the intensity of use to avoid frustration of customers.
