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Daniel Blackham heads to Eovolt HQ in Lyon to preview the 2024 range and learn about the brand’s plans for the future
This piece first appeared in the February edition of BikeBiz magazine – get your free subscription here
You could be forgiven for mistaking Eovolt as a relative newcomer to the bike industry.
Founded in 2018 by Luca Chevalier and Baptiste Fullen, the French folding e-bike brand specialises in ultra-practical bikes designed to match the needs of the modern commuter.
With a refined product line-up: Morning 16”, Afternoon 20* and Evening 24”, it’s clear to see why the brand is held in high regard by its 700 retailers across the world.
In fact, the majority of its business happens beyond French borders with more than 60% of bikes being shipped overseas to 20 countries including: the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Canada, the USA and Australia.
To date, Eovolt has produced 35,000 folders with 11,500 rolling off the factory floor in 2022.
Beyond the headline numbers sits a workforce of 40 people, based out of the brand’s 2,400 square metre headquarters in Lyon.
Housed in Lyon is also a two-shift production line, in-house research and development and wheel building, storage for plenty of spare parts, as well as all marketing and aftersales teams.
Investing wisely
Investment may be a common phrase used by brands when pedalling a new product, but for Eovolt it is a constant.
In March 2020, Eovolt relocated from Bourges to Lyon to capitalise on the region’s engineering talent and in 2022, the brand fundraised €16 million from two venture capital firms – with Chevalier and Fullen retaining 100% ownership.
Although this was initially going to be used to increase production, Chevalier is being sensible with the funds while the market undergoes somewhat of a reset.
“The answer would be totally different if you asked me the same question one year ago,” he explained.
“We raised 16 million euro in July 2022 in order to increase our production capacity, invest in our research and development and promote our brand abroad. That’s still the plan but at a different scale. We have to keep being agile.
“Since the market slowed down, we want to keep a very healthy financial situation and many of our competitors in the mobility industry right now are having a very tough time because of their stock.”
The vision now for Chevalier is to keep the company healthy, keep staff on board and wait for the right moment to revisit the long term growth plan
“We also don’t want to be in this situation where we let our dealer down because we have too much stock and we have to cut the price,” he added.
As mentioned earlier, Eovolt’s demand is driven by more than French people supporting a French brand.
“Increasing our business abroad in order to compensate for the business that we lost in our local market,” said Chevalier.
“For the French market, we have a very clear analysis and we saw a very big decrease in demand. But for the other markets, since we were not so major in those, we are still growing. Not because the markets are growing, it’s just we are growing in a decreasing market.”
Balancing cost and value
Oscar Wilde once quipped: “A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
Although this may be read as a pretentious reference by the author of this article, it is very relevant to the commuter market.
The cost of something and the value are often merged by the consumer – especially in the current climate when 40% off RRP is becoming the standard.
“You wouldn’t have thought to spend €1,000 on a smartphone 20 years ago, said Chevalier.
“But now a smartphone has so much value for us because we use it every single day, so it matters less how much it costs
“For the bicycle industry I believe it’s the same. Our product has such an impact on people’s lives. It gets rid of a lot of problems for people who commute and they will be able to take it anywhere. It is also safer and more comfortable.”
Commitment to innovation
Intrinsic to the value offered by Eovolt is its continued commitment in innovation.
Year-on-year, Chevalier said the brand will re-invest around 10% of its turnover in research and development.
For 2024, Eovolt will introduce a premium range of belt-driven, folding e-bikes to its line-up that will exist alongside its current offering.
As well as the Gates belt drive, the 2024 range will feature a completely redesigned frame and fork, integrated cabling, new Bafang hub motor, auto-locking hinges, auto-centre saddle alignment, ABUS battery clamps, a stable double kickstand and a refined foldable cockpit with custom positioning for different sized riders.
“On the new bike we’ve applied for six patents and already got three of them,” explained Chevalier.
“The new auto-locking hinge, our new battery system and the magnet-locking system
“Every patent is linked to another. The battery system patent is only relevant because of another patent that makes the base this shape – and so on. I hope our users won’t really focus on patents too much and just focus on the experience they have.”
Not every change made to the model requires a patent.
According to Eovolt, between 30 and 40 tweaks are made year-on-year to ensure a more user-friendly experience.
One example for this term is a rubber cover on the base of the seatpost, triggered after an employee damaged their floor by dropping it in their apartment.
“We will not innovate for the sake of innovation,” said Chevalier.
“We will innovate for the users. It’s very easy to do something new. But the only thing that matters is not that it’s new, it’s that it’s new and it’s solved a problem.
“This range is an example of that. If we have no innovation good enough we will not release a new product.”
RRPs for the premium range will settle around £3,000 while the current model year will continue between £1,799 and £2,199.
Naturally, the innovations will trickle down Eovolt’s portfolio to represent a value-packed product.
And that’s not all.
Eovolt is also set to introduce its first non-electric 16” and 20” models with the option of either a Shimano Nexus 7 or Bafang three-speed gearhub. These are expected to retail at around £1,699.
With innovation continuing apace, is Chevalier concerned that Eovolt will ever run out of ideas? In short, no
“We will keep innovating,” he said
“We are cooking up something new for the future and that will arrive in 2025/26. Right now we are only doing foldable bikes. We don’t have an accessory range yet and we are working on it.
“Cargo bikes are something that we are looking at. We are looking at any type of mobility.
We are talking with a lot of companies that are moving people. In this field, I think we can innovate with many different types of transport.”
Valuing dealers
As the industry has seen in recent times, the relationship between brand and dealer can be strained by market pressures and decisions at board level.
This is something Chevalier and Eovolt consider closely
“We have to understand the churn of our network,” he explained
“How many shops we have doesn’t really mean anything. What is a shop? Is it just someone who bought one bike two years ago?
“I don’t want Eovolt to be the type of brand where ‘the more you buy, the better price you get’ because actually, this doesn’t really matter. A very small shop in a very small town cannot buy 100 bikes, but it doesn’t mean that it’s not a good partner.
“If they know the brand, know the bike, and can talk about it, that’s a great shop.
In France, Eovolt’s marketing strategy sees it send more than 50 people a day into its dealers and there are a number of internal measurements to ensure the customer goes to the right retailer for the best experience.
“This helps us maintain as good a network as possible,” said Chevalier.
“Right now we are doing this only in France because we control the whole network, but we are looking to do this across the world.”
Alongside this, Eovolt has a number of initiatives in place, including an online platform for training, factory visits for local partners and its own merchandising.
When combined, these have a significant impact on sell-through
A test with a large store in Germany saw it sell as many bikes in July and August as it did between January and June of the same year after the brand training and new POS was installed.
Further support to dealers and consumers comes in the way of a two-year warranty on electronics and a five-year warranty on Eovolt parts – which can be doubled to 10 if the client registers their bike with the company.
The brand has also invested heavily into its own ERP system to reduce downtime.
“We try to anticipate what’s going to happen, especially for countries which are far away,” said Chevalier.
For the UK, Pinpoint CE, Eovolt’s UK distributor, will receive a batch of the most-commonly used spares with all shipments of bikes in 2024. This is made even easier for all parties when there are more than two-thirds of compatible parts across the range.
Beyond 2024, the future looks bright for Eovolt and all of its retailers.
With a stable financial footing, ambitious owners and continuous innovation, the brand has come a long way from its humble origins yet never foregone its roots.
