BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European bicycle industry gathered in Brussels last week for their founding meeting of the Cycling Industries European (CIE). It is being created to enable cycling businesses of all sizes and from all sectors to make their contribution to business and society.

DRESDEN, Germany - The TerraE consortium, set up with great ambitions about a year and a half ago to establish a giga factory to produce lithium-ion cells, has seemed to have failed.

VIENNA, Austria - In a recent case of bicycle theft the Austrian police was able to track and find a stolen e-bike in 24 hours and even discover a van of stolen goods. Geo-location and connectivity were the keywords to solve the case at an international level.

BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Commission recently published its proposals to reform the Value Added Tax (VAT) system. If the proposal goes ahead, Member States will be able to set reduced or zero VAT rates much more freely than currently.

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Are the Free Trade Agreements with Singapore and Vietnam jeopardized and are Chinese companies looking for expansion into the European Union faced with a growing number of limitations? This time with duties and tariffs of the

IDSTEIN, Germany - After launching its first own online D2C (Direct-to-Customer) platform for the German-speaking market, German premium bicycle niche brand Storck Bicycle GmbH now opened it for the world market. Since the end of September the English-language page is online as well.

DOETICHEM, the Netherlands - After ten years as the magazine's Key Account manager, Lucas van 't Hof is leaving the team of Bike Europe and the Dutch sister magazine for the IBDs Tweewieler. His last day in the office will be 19 October.

荷蘭，海倫芬（Heerenveen）－Accell集團於上週宣佈該公司前任營運長Jeroen Snijders Blok將於今年底退休。Snijders Blok今年60歲，他在四月的時候已從該公司董事會卸任。

比利時，布魯塞爾（Brussels）－ 為了達成「充分運用高速電動輔助自行車（speed pedelec）作為通勤工具」的目的，相關的推廣計畫正從比利時及荷蘭開始進行。儘管該類自行車的銷售正在成長，但速度並不快，這是目前在荷蘭觀察到的現況，因此才會需要這樣的計劃來推動。

台灣，台北－首屆台北國際自行車展產業論壇在3月23日的成功舉辦讓貿協（展會主辦單位）決定在十月的自行車展中帶入一樣的概念。第二屆的論壇為期兩天，將會有來自各領域的專家分享目前電動自行車設計、規範、智能生產及移動性最新趨勢。

荷蘭，喬爾（Joure）－在自行車燈及配件供應商Spanninga的百年歡慶上，其執行長Keike Spanninga提倡了自行車燈在道路安全上的品質標示。所有來自荷蘭、法國、中國、台灣的企業菁英及Spanninga員工於上週聚在公司荷蘭總部慶祝。

Bike Europe edition 10-2018

Spring started early this year in Russia. It rapidly boosted sales of summer sport goods, namely bicycles, kick-scooters, roller blades etcetera. However, apart from basic mass-market bikes and bike products, Russian buyers get disappointed failing on finding what they are dreaming on in their local stores.

HEERENVEEN, the Netherlands - Accell Group announced last week that its former Chief Operating Officer, Jeroen Snijders Blok, is to retire by the end of this year. Snijders Blok (60) already stepped down from the holding company's Board of Directors last April.

Internet has been a game changer in many industries which turned the analog 'old world' nearly upside down. In the European bicycle industry manufacturers and distributors were still used to and felt quite comfortable to control their distribution channels. But that's

E-bike battery lifetime is predominantly determined by stress and cell temperature and cell quality. For existing batteries, only stress can be addressed. Stress substantially increases above 80% and below 20% State of Charge (SoC). E-bike batteries are

BRUSSELS, Belgium - In Belgium and in Holland promotion projects are being started in order "To optimize the potential of the speed pedelec for commuting." Such projects are needed because sales of this e-bike category is indeed rising

AMSTERDAM, the Netherlands - Switching to omni-channel is currently 'the name of the game'. Such a distribution strategy includes operating webshops. Here some reservations are needed to be made. Especially when this takes place in the Netherlands