The State Of Electric-Bike Industry
The electric bike industry has been on a sharp rise in the past couple of years. And for a good reason too.
Not only have governments around the world started incentivizing people to switch to more sustainable transportation methods, but people have started realizing that getting around town is much quicker with a bicycle than with a car.
After all, you don’t have to deal with traffic jams.
And what do you get when a certain product becomes super popular?
That’s right, you get a bunch of businesses fighting for their piece of the pie.
While this is a great boon since it encourages innovation and keeps the prices down, there are some downsides.
The biggest downside is frankly terrible quality e-bikes and even worse after-sales service.
But it’s not all doom and gloom – there are companies out there that really care about their product and their customers.
Enter, Himiway.
Although Himiway started out in 2017, they’ve quickly built a positive reputation for building high-quality, affordable e-bikes with top-notch customer care. With about the 300 dealers worldwide, excellent after-sales service, as well as a 2-year warranty on all of their bikes, it’s no surprise that Himiway has built up a customer base of over 100 000 users!
I wish more companies followed Himiway’s example. They’ve proven that all you need to succeed in this industry is to have a high-quality product, strong branding, and excellent customer care.
In this article, I’ll go over what’s the current state of the e-bike industry and how Himiway stands out from the competition.
As I’ve mentioned in the intro, the e-bike industry is booming. Just 10 years ago, there were just a handful of brands that dabbled in this biking niche.
Fast forward to today, and you have hundreds of brands, each adding its unique spin to the e-bike formula.
But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. There are lots of challenges this industry has to tackle.
For starters, there’s the problem with legislation. Current legislations are pretty rigid when it comes to what types of bikes are street legal. This has forced the manufacturers to churn out basically 3 different types of e-bikes and not deviate too much.
There’s also a narrative that e-bikes are prone to spontaneous combustion. This is because they use lithium-ion batteries.
But that can’t be further from the truth. Sure, there are a couple of bad apples but they’re well known, and most customers and dealers alike are keeping as far away from them as possible.
Lastly, there’s also a problem with cutting corners. This is especially true for Chinese e-bike manufacturers. Not only do these brands sell crappy e-bikes since they cut a lot of corners when building them, but they also have terrible customer support.
This is not just reserved for, let’s say, “budget-friendly” brands. This goes all the way to the top.
When you order an e-bike from a Chinese manufacturer, not only do you have to wait a month for the bike to ship to you, but in many cases, it will arrive damaged.
When you contact their customer support about the problem, it will be a good week or two before you get an answer. In most cases, you’ll get a boilerplate message saying they’re sorry for the inconvenience and that they’re ready to help you out.
Once you finally air out all your grievances, customer support will ghost you for another couple of weeks and then tell you that they can’t help you or that you’ll have to wait for the replacement part for a couple of months.
Not only is this harmful to the brand but also to the industry in general since you give people a reason not to like e-bikes.
What Has Himiway Done Over The Past Couple Of Years
Himiway is a latecomer to the e-bike part. They’ve started out pretty recently – 2017, to be more exact.
The company was founded by a group of nearly fanatic outdoors enthusiasts in the hopes of providing the masses with a way they can explore the great outdoors in a comfortable an eco-friendly way.
But you can say that for just about every e-bike brand out there. There has to be more to their success.
Well, of course, there is. The founders put a high focus on using high-quality components in their bikes and making them easy to use.
And so, the Himiway Cruiser was born. This e-bike is the perfect example of what this company is all about.
The Cruiser has fat tires, so it can go over just about any terrain imaginable, a grade-A quality frame, and a beefy motor. The cherry on top – the bike was under $2000.
Combine this with one of the best customer care programs in the industry, and you get a formula for success.
Now one of the common points of criticism against Himiway is that their bikes are produced overseas, in the exotic yet totalitarian People’s Republic of China.
But what would you do when presented with this challenge? A US-based e-bike company has to dole out millions of dollars to open a factory, and then it has to pay premiums on importing all the parts and materials.
A new company will be in a pretty deep hole before the first e-bike rolls out of the production line.
On the other hand, you already have everything you need in China. The only difficult thing is finding the right manufacturing partners.
I don’t know what kind of black magic the Himiway team used, but they have some of the best manufacturing partners around. On top of that, they work closely with them to both produce and develop new e-bikes.
The result of this partnership is many of the company’s later models, such as the Zebra and Big Dog.
What Others Have To Say About Himiway
Listening to me praise the Himiway might seem like I’m shilling for the company. But that can’t be further from the truth.
To prove that I’m not alone, here are a few user reviews:
Lou Proulux has this to say:
“I would like to update my previous review. I am bumping it up from a three-star to a five because Customer Support helped me to resolve what I felt was a serious issue. I can now say, that Customer Service came through in a pinch to help me resolve my problem. I wish to thank them by saying that “Himiway is more customer conscious and helpful in doing right by customer complaints.” I now can flatly state, they do care about a customer’s opinion and if it’s negative, will do their best to change it to a positive outcome.
AND I truly do love my Cruiser eBike! It’s awesome. You can quote me on that!“
Taylor Chapman also shares the same sentiment as Lou:
“After many hours of research and reviews, I finally decided on the Himiway Cobra. I received the bike in a timely fashion
and in excellent condition. After assembly and a couple of rides I really liked the bike a lot more than I was expecting. I rode
mountain bikes at club levels in my earlier days. But, I knew that it would take some getting use to and it is not for a novice rider.
I did experience a few minor issues and the team at Himiway Customer Service were amazing. I sent them a few pictures of the
issues and they immediately sent replacements. All was fixed and I was back on the road, put 150 miles with no issues. I am 58 years
old and I can’t tell you how much I enjoy being back on a bike and able to travel long distances again. I have gone back to some of my
old paths and switchbacks just for fun. The bike is amazing. Thank you, Himiway.”
“Of course, those are just positive reviews. Are there any negative ones? Well there are just 5. At least that’s how many there are on their website. Compare that to the nearly 4.5 thousand positive reviews.
That’s a pretty good success rate if you ask me. After all, even if you have the best customer service in the world, you’re bound to make a couple of mistakes.
Getting a hold of public dealer testimonials was almost impossible. However, I managed to get in contact with a couple and ask them what their thoughts were on the company.
Unfortunately, I can’t give you any names since they wanted to stay anonymous, but they all had nothing but words of praise.
For starters, the bikes are in the perfect price range for most Americans. Furthermore, they’re built tough and are covered by some of the best warranties in the industry.
Lastly, Himiway’s customer care team will go above and beyond to resolve customer issues. All dealers were unanimous in the opinion that Himiway is currently the most customer-friendly e-bike brand on the market.
Himiway’s Commitment To Customers
So, what’s the secret to Himiway’s success?
That’s simple – a high-quality product supported by world-class customer care.
Whatever problem their team tackles, they do it with great care and attention to detail. Just like they focus on producing and developing affordable, high-quality e-bikes, they put the same focus on customer care.
Unlike other manufacturers, if your bike arrives damaged or has other issues, their team will go out of their way to ensure you get the replacement parts and advice you need.
I hope more e-bike companies copy Himiway’s approach. The only way you can succeed in this industry is by combining a high-quality product with just as good customer care.
Conclusion
Before I let you go, let’s summarize things.
The thing that made Himiway one of the most sought-after e-bike brands is their commitment to producing a high-quality product and supporting it with just as fantastic customer support.
I only hope more companies start copying Himiway. If that truly happens, you will see much less bad press about e-bikes, and who knows, maybe governments around the world start loosening the regulations.