BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
On 6 February, the Department for Business and Trade and the Department for International Trade posted a public notice by the Secretary of State concerning anti-dumping measures on e-bikes from China.
The Government has accepted the Trade Remedies recommendation to vary the anti-dumping duty so it applies to folding e-bikes only.
In short, this means, despite the recent five-year extension on anti-dumping and countervailing measures on electric bicycles from China, this now only applies to folding e-bikes. This change applies until 18 January 2029.
The Trade Remedies Authority’s (TRA) review found that dumping would likely recur if the duty was removed, but the full extension wouldn’t be in the “UK’s economic interest.” They found that “revoking the measures on non-folding e-bikes could mean that consumers, on average, could save around £200 each as a result of being able to purchase cheaper e-bikes.”
According to the TRA review, “Non-folding e-bikes make up around 95% of the UK’s total e-bikes market.”
The measure, which comes into effect today (7 February 2025) relates to “e-bikes originating from China and exported to the UK, which are cycles, with pedal assistance, with an auxiliary electric motor.”
Those who import non-folding e-bikes must now use the additional 8100 code to avoid the duty. Specific duties for folding e-bikes remain in place.
Mixed Reaction to the News
Since the news broke, there has been mixed reaction. In response, Independent Fleet Consultant (E-bikes & Cargo bikes), Charlie Ford told us:
It’s a great news story for the UK bike industry, those retailers, resellers and manufacturers will be thankful that they can get some cashback for the bikes imported over the last year to help boost their balance sheets and allow them to re-invest in their businesses in 2025. Some UK manufacturers will be disappointed that this won’t affect them; but as the vast majority of e-bikes are made in China this will mean going into 2025 they can offer bikes with 15 – 30% discounted at retail.
Likely they will only pass off a small amount of this to consumers, but to the average joe looking for a new e-bike, they should see within a few months cheaper e-bikes being offered direct to consumers! Overall this should help drive down the cost of e-bikes further and lead to wider adoption and hopefully lead to an uptick in sales by the end of 2025!
Taking another view, Madison CEO, Dominic Langan posted a response on the CIN news update on LinkedIn:
It’s bad news for exporters to the EU. We will need to produce e-bikes in China for the UK to be competitive but these bikes will be subject to ADD in the EU so not viable. But equally for many brands there won’t be enough volume to produce one set of bikes for the UK and one set for the EU from different countries of origin. Another nail in the coffin for exporting from the UK into the EU. Also bad news for UK manufacturing or any potential UK manufacturing.
The Bicycle Association told Cycling Industry News they have, “requested official clarification of the precise definition which HMRC will be using to identify “folding e-bikes.”
The BA hopes to have clarification on the definition in the next few days. They have also produced an extensive guidance document which is available to BA member companies regarding the current trade defence measures (UK and EU) and how they interact with other trade agreements (e.g. the TRA for goods moving between UK and EU).
The document now be updated to include the recent changes.
We’ve also reached out to other relevant organisations and will update once we receive comment.
