With Donald Trump's announcement of tariffs on pretty much every country in the world, many people are wondering how this is going to affect prices outside the USA. All of the major bike and e-bike component manufacturers are based in countries hit hard by tariffs, in particular China and Taiwan. Even though UK consumers won't be paying the tariffs directly, in a global marketplace it's safe to assume that we won't be totally unaffected. Here we try to answer some of the most frequent questions that we've been getting about tariffs.
We aren't in the USA so why will the tariffs increase prices in the UK?
It's true that we won't be paying the tariffs, but manufacturers based in countries that dominate bike component manufacturing - China, Taiwan, and Vietnam - will be affected. Demand for their components is certain to be negatively impacted as prices rise in the huge US market. Manufacturers may absorb any loss in sales and wait to see whether the tariffs are reduced are removed over the coming months. They may increase prices across the rest of the world to try to make up for the loss of sales in the US market. Nobody knows. But, if you are thinking about buying a new e-bike this year the thing to remember is that we have plenty of current stock.
How many e-bike manufacturers are American?
Some of the largest bike brands are indeed American owned, but at I Cycle we've never tied ourselves to any one brand. We stock e-bikes from brands from the UK, Germany, The Netherlands, Taiwan and more. We've always chosen which bikes we stock based on the quality of the bike, the value it offers our customers, and the support manufacturers offer us, as a bike shop, so we can provide unrivalled service to our customers.
Are prices likely to fall given brands will be selling less in America?
It's certainly possible that when sales fall in the American market manufacturers could reduce prices in markets like the UK to try and sell more outside the USA. However, price cutting is seen as a last resort for most businesses. From a retailers perspective, there aren't huge profit margins to begin with within the cycling trade and most bike shops are only just recovering from the post-covid overstocking that saw many shops go out of business. Shops will be wary of buying heavily discounted stock that they could end up sitting on well beyond the current year. Spring and Summer are when the most bikes are sold, so waiting for prices to drop could also see you miss out on the e-bike that you want. Equally, prices could just as easily rise as manufacturers look to make up for lost sales in America.
Will the availability of spare parts be affected by tariffs?
No. All of the big manufacturers are based outside of the USA and ship components directly to UK, European and Far East manufacturers. Although there are no guarantees that prices won't be affected in the future, we don't expect any problems with the availability of spare parts for bikes or e-bikes.