Three Years on the Edge: Three Strategic Decisions that Almost Killed Us

Starting a manufacturing business from scratch is incredibly challenging. 

Three years ago, I began making bicycles, and have invested over 20 million yuan. We produce electric road bikes - essentially road bikes with motors and batteries. While European brands sell similar products for over 100,000 yuan RMB, ours cost just above 20,000. With our bikes, you can, like me, ride to Everest Base Camp, cross the Dahaidao in Lop Nor, and traverse the uninhabited Qiangtang region in Tibet.

In 2020, European E-BIKE sales exceeded 5 million units, reaching 23% market penetration. This excited many investors. A bike-making boom swept through China. However, none of us realized the numerous challenges ahead. Everyone assumed China's E-BIKE market would immediately replicate the beautiful growth curve of Western markets. The wait for growth proved much longer than expected.

2022

The Boldest Bet -

Abandoning the West for China's Future

When COSMOS E-BIKE was founded in late 2021, no Chinese brands existed in this field. With guidance from supply chain veterans, we built our team in two months. Initially targeting Europe, everything changed within six months: sales plummeted in key markets like Germany and Netherlands. This golden track, which had grown tenfold over eight years, suddenly stalled. European brands began clearing inventory at 30-40% discounts, and decades-old companies went bankrupt. Listed companies reported halved revenues and 80% profit drops, marking the industry's decline.

Worse still, Western markets erected barriers against Chinese manufacturing: banning bike assembly in China, restricting core component production, increasing tariffs, and establishing new entry standards. Simply put, I believe any company with Chinese ownership faces inevitable Western suppression.

That year, I spent my first 10 million developing four models. To build trust in our quality, I personally led a month-long testing expedition in Tibet's uninhabited regions. This gained attention, and our first 300 bikes quickly sold out domestically while attracting overseas orders. I spent days managing domestic deliveries and nights in video calls with foreign clients. This helped me realize two things: First, policy discrimination wouldn't change soon despite market cycles; Second, as Western countries promoted local supply chains, their domestic brands gained advantages, making market entry increasingly difficult.

So, we pivoted to focus entirely on the Chinese market.

2023

Is E-BIKE Really a Story of 

Consumption Upgrade?

Early 2023, we rented an old shipyard by Hangzhou's Grand Canal to build our sales system. Reality hit hard: the post-pandemic capital market showed no signs of recovery. Before DJI entered the E-BIKE industry, most funds categorized E-BIKEs as consumer products rather than tech products. Many star consumer companies couldn't raise funds even with lowered valuations. Without sustainable revenue and unable to secure funding, many competitors had to exit. In this new field, I had no successful models to reference - every business decision required independent judgment. As Pandome's founder reflected, blazing a trail in uncharted waters is the loneliest journey of all.

While we had established stable private domain sales though wechat, offline education costs remained high. We constantly had to explain to users: E-BIKEs aren't ordinary electric bikes or scooters - they're completely different. This continuous communication led to a realization: E-BIKE development in China isn't simply about consumption upgrade; it's about creating a new category rooted in cycling culture.

This prompted us to make a strategic pivot: upgrading our offline space from a single-brand showroom to a "one-step to all cycling solution provider." We began distributing premium overseas cycling brands while systematically investing in cycling culture cultivation. This decision led us to discover a different development path: while other E-BIKE stores were closing down, we shifted from passive offline customer acquisition to proactive content marketing, creating a complete chain from bike sales to equipment matching and cycling services. As we explored this path, I realized: rather than waiting for China's E-BIKE market to replicate the growth curve of Western markets, we should focus on the current trend of channel digitalization.

To this day, I still believe that the "pure offline E-BIKE retail model" hasn't been effectively validated in China. When industry giants like Specialized and Giant haven't fully succeeded with this model, independent brands need to be even more strategic in their approach. In the future E-BIKE industry, amidst intense competition, only brands deeply rooted in genuine user experience will build real barriers to entry. Users don't need a superficial browsing experience followed by aggressive sales pitches - they need a space where they can fully experience the products. This is why we positioned our new headquarters as an experience center for products and cycling culture, securing a 3,000-square-meter space in a prime location in Hangzhou. Our goal is to showcase a more comprehensive and engaging cycling world. We welcome everyone to visit and have face-to-face interactions with our product team.

2024

The Price of

Not Making Low-End Models

Throughout three years of entrepreneurship, many suggested developing low-price models for volume. This alarmed me: since no E-BIKE product had ever achieved mass sales in China, why suggest this path?

Price wars seem naturally restricted in this field. Giant spent five years testing price limits - from mid-drive motors at under 9,000 yuan to hub motors at 5,999 yuan, yet "high value" products couldn't break sales bottlenecks. This reflects China's harsh two-wheeler market reality: 2,000-yuan electric scooters make any E-BIKE's value proposition seem weak.

The turning point came in autumn 2022. Instead of launching a 9,999-yuan hub motor model, we made a bold decision: focus on premium products that don't compromise the core riding experience. The market proved us right as hub motor products gradually disappeared in the price war.

In 2023, an idea struck me again: What if we put aside concerns about costs and profits, and ignore whether the market is ready - could we create the best performing bike globally?

Thus, VAPOR was born. We challenged international premium brands on performance metrics while maintaining a more accessible price point. We offered over 300 personalization options, enabling each owner to configure their dream bike exactly as they wanted it. Combined with our consistently high standards of E-BIKE service, we achieved far better-than-expected repurchase rates and referrals. Looking back at this crucial step, I realized that in manufacturing, creating the right product requires such a winding journey. While the entire industry was obsessed with price wars, the real breakthrough lay in meeting users' unfulfilled expectations.

These seemingly unconventional decisions were actually driven by two core questions: 

Can E-BIKEs establish a sustainable market in China? 

Is cycling service essentially about transportation or experience?

In the polarized two-wheeler market, one end is dominated by the unshakeable pragmatism of electric scooters, while the other end represents a "comprehensive cycling value proposition" that needs redefining. By continuously delving deeper into the latter direction, what appears to be taking the long road might actually be getting ahead of the game.

2025

Hard to Say We've Made It,

But We've Found Our Way.

Looking back at these three years, every major decision was a calculated risk:

In 2022, we abandoned the tempting Western markets to focus entirely on China, ultimately building our moat in unexpected places.

In 2023, while others rushed to expand dealerships, we invested in cycling culture and deeper content, identifying our true user base.

In 2024, during the industry's price war, VAPOR proved an alternative path - surpassing international brands in performance and service, redefining cycling demands.

A year ago, during our most challenging product transition, the team created a video compilation of all the places I'd cycled over two years - a memorial to those challenging days. Whenever exhausted, watching this video and these magnificent landscapes still brings tears to my eyes. This is how life can be lived.

As spring 2025 approaches and our new headquarters opens, COSMOS E-BIKE hasn't left the cliff's edge - the cliff has just become wider, the path clearer, and VAPOR's sales have grown over fivefold. We welcome partners to join us in Hangzhou for fireside chats - our brand's lessons and achievements are still being written.