Founded in 2008 in Gothenburg, Ecoride has already sold 100,000 electric bicycles. Especially strong in the Nordic markets, the company’s goal is to double their sales by 2025. To achieve that, a few changes will be implemented.
The assembly of their bicycles started by being made in China but later the company ended up transferring the final assembly to Poland. This year was time to change once again, and the bet fell on Gothenburg.
“The electric bike manufacturer Ecoride is gathering its headquarters, development, final assembly, and warehouse in Gothenburg”, they say in the press release. The group aims by this “to secure their supply chains”. As well as “to take better advantage of the innovation taking place in this city, especially within mobility and tech”.
By producing the articles in Sweden, points out Ecoride, “we are closer to our markets”. Consequently “we will be able to deliver orders more quickly and we will have to travel less”. Another advantage of concentrating sales, purchasing, production and aftermarket in the same premises is that from now on “we will be able to make faster decisions”.
Ecoride hires new employees
Working exclusively from Sweden requires new team leaders to be hired and new warehouse and assembly teams to be build up. Therefore, new job opportunities will emerge – “we expect to create 50 new jobs during 2022 and 2023”, specifies Martin Walleräng, Ecoride’s founder and CEO.
This new phase of Ecoride will also be marked by the company’s desire “to take a stronger hold on sustainability along the entire product life cycle”. An assurance given by Joel Görsch, investment advisor for automotive and cleantech at Business Region Göteborg.
Interestingly, the Business Region Göteborg played an important role in this recent change of the company. This is because they helped Ecoride, among other things, “find suitable premises in the middle of the cluster of companies on Hisingen, northern Gothenburg, that shape the mobility of the future”. The bicycle manufacturer ended up deciding to rent “a premise of the real estate company Platzer in Arendal that was previously used by the Volvo Group”.
Micromobility in Gothenburg
Currently, every fifth bike sold in Sweden is electric, but this has not always been the case. In 2008 there were hardly any electrically powered bikes on the market. It was also only in that year that, for the first time, micromobility manufacturers established themselves in the Gothenburg region.
Micromobility includes ordinary bikes, but also bikes and scooters powered by electricity. Alongside these, a variety of new smaller vehicles are also part of this concept. Used for goods and other packages deliveries in the city, such automobiles can be powered by electricity or muscle power.
However, “in Gothenburg, the Micromobility cluster has developed strongly over the past decade, especially within the manufacturing segment”. According to a new cluster analysis from the Business Region Göteborg,”the value added has increased by almost 70% between 2012 and 2020″. During that same period, “the number of companies has more than doubled and the number of employees has increased by 2,000 people”.
Ecoride, by bringing its pioneering project to Gothenburg, “will strengthen the entire cluster”, argues Anastazia Kronberg. Furthermore “it can stimulate the development of smaller players in and around this city,” added the business manager for the Gothenburg Climate Partnership, Business Region Göteborg.
