Brand Story丨The overseas market development history of Bafang

Brand Story丨The overseas market development history of Bafang 

At the Sea Otter Classic in California, which ended not long ago, the Commissioner of MagicCycling saw the booth of Bafang Electric. As a motor system brand from China, Bafang appeared in large-scale overseas exhibitions with the LOGO "BAFANG" full of Chinese characteristics, which made people feel very cordial.

It took Bafang nearly 20 years to work hard to win a great reputation in the market.

New Opportunities for Electric Power under the Tide of Financial Crisis

It’s the special year of 2008 in history. This year, the Wenchuan earthquake, Beijing Olympic Games, and at the same time, the financial crisis that shocked the world occurred in European countries this year, which caused a global economic depression.

However, the bicycle industry has instead shown a thriving momentum. Rising crowds at the 2008 Interbike show, rising awareness of eco-friendly consumption, expectations for healthy lifestyles, and increasingly expensive gasoline have led more and more consumers to consider buying a bicycle—especially It is an electric bicycle.  

This year, Bafang Company, which has only been established five years, decided to enter the overseas electric bicycle market, and the first goal was set in European and American countries.

This decision was made mainly due to the widespread popularity of electric bicycles abroad in 2001 relatively complete technical standards and market norms have been formed by 2008, also Europe was the largest electric bicycle at that time. The U.S. market is also emerging. The entire European and American consumer market has bright prospects, rapid and stable growth, and is a good development environment for start-ups.

Overcome thorns and thorns, and expand territory by strength

However, as a Chinese company, it takes more effort than its competitors to make successful in the foreign countries. At that time, "Made in China" was regarded by many foreign consumers as synonymous with "cheap and average quality". Foreign customers who were not familiar with Bafang were also skeptical of Bafang's products at first. There are Bosch, Shimano, and other famous brands, why do we choose Bafang? Under such circumstances, it is not easy at the beginning.

Although Bafang was a new brand at this time, its core team had accumulated more than ten years of technical experience in the industry and had the confidence and ability to develop products that were more advantageous than its competitors. In fact, after several years of dedicated research, Bafang has a number of invention patents and utility model patents, and the innovation capability of the company is not inferior to that of foreign brands.

Although picky European complete bicycle brands are very strict in the selection of suppliers. Bafang insists on "product performance" and "service quality". Customers gradually dispelled their doubts. With the deepening of cooperation, customers have become more and more trusting in the quality of Bafang.

Since its official launch in 2008, Bafang's motor products first opened up sales in the Dutch market and gained a good market share.

In 2012, Bafang successfully developed the first-generation mid-motor system, thus officially joining the "mid-high-end electric power club", which not only gained a higher reputation in the industry but also gained more recognition from customers and gained more large overseas market.

At about the same time, the German company Bosch Group officially launched their first electric drive system for city bikes in 2011, and Shimano developed and manufactured the first electric drive system in 2014, E6000.

Bafang is not afraid of challenges and takes the mid-motor system as the focus of research and development.

At present, the Mid-Drive System is also the most popular category for overseas customers.

We can see the "BAFANG" LOGO on many foreign brands of city bikes.

Move forward quickly and set up subsidiaries abroad

Bafang, a newcomer to the overseas market, with his own strength and courage, went through the difficulties and made a forcible breakthrough in Europe.

There are many difficulties to be solved in doing business overseas. For example, language barriers may lead to cumbersome and time-consuming coordination of various affairs, as well as many inconveniences caused by the huge cultural differences between China and the West. In this regard, Bafang's strategy is to adapt to local conditions, hire local employees, improve local service quality, and greatly improve sales efficiency.

At the same time, Bafang decided to set up subsidiaries overseas to further improve service efficiency and continuously strengthen its global layout.



       In 2012, the first overseas subsidiary of Bafang - Netherlands is the first market and has a very long history of bicycle culture. It is logical to start the first step of overseas corporate operations here.
In addition, Bafang is equivalent to setting up an overseas services center that can radiate the entire Western Europe region, so as to achieve full coverage of services for customers of wholesales in Western Europe. This also reflects Bafang's business philosophy of escorting high-quality products with high-quality services.

After the Netherlands, Bafang's overseas expansion seems to be in the fast lane. Especially after 2015, everything is accelerating.

In 2015, the Bafang team won the German 24-hour electric bicycle rally championship on a chariot equipped with the Bafang electric-assist system. This game can be described as a highlight in the history of Bafang's overseas development, and it is worth mentioning again and again. The significance is that this is a professional event. Of the participating teams, only the Bafang team uses motor products from China, and competes with big brands such as Germany's Bosch, and France's Moustache and finally wins. This is a test of the strength of China's Bafang products. The most powerful evidence.

In 2017, Bafang's second overseas subsidiary, Bafang USA, was established, and its business focus is on product sales and after-sales service in the US market. Due to the vast area and sparse population, American consumers are more dependent on cars. Relatively speaking, the market penetration rate of electric bicycles is lower than that of the European market, but this also means more possibilities, especially in mountain bikes and shared bicycles. In the field of bicycles and leisure city vehicles, electric-assist has been bred and exploded.

In 2018, Bafang opened an office in Germany to provide more efficient services to customers in Central Europe and ease the business pressure on its Dutch subsidiary. This year, Bafang grew rapidly in the European market, and the export volume of mid-mounted motors at the mid-to-high end price reached 110,000 units.

In 2018, another subsidiary of Bafang in Europe, Bafang Poland, was established, with a factory under it, mainly to provide product manufacturing, sales, and maintenance after-sales service for the European market. In 2019, Bafang established an office in Taiwan, China, which is deeply connected with Taiwan's bicycle industry.



 

     In November 2019, Bafang was successfully listed on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and the company entered a new stage of rapid development. The rapidly growing market demand has put forward higher requirements on production capacity. In 2020, the Tianjin branch was established, and the newly built production base further expanded the production scale.

Keep walking, continue to layout the global market

In 2021, while the new crown epidemic is raging, the global market demand for electric bicycle products is also growing rapidly, and the globalization of Bafang is also steadily advancing. Denmark, France, and Italy—Bafang has successively established offices in these three countries to implement the dealer service model in an in-depth and extensive manner, further shortening the customer feedback cycle and improving service levels.

This year, Bafang New Energy (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. was formally established, and the new factory is under preparation for construction. The plant area exceeds 100,000 square meters, and the production capacity has been further expanded.

It has been more than ten years since the brand went overseas, and Bafang has continued to cultivate in major markets such as Europe and North America. Now it has become the first echelon of international motor brands. The global sales system has been continuously improved. Whether it is brand influence or product competitiveness, it is enough to compete with Germany, Japan, etc. The country's veteran chambers compete.