If you live in a hilly city (like I do), riding a bike for a quick errand can be an arduous proposition - at least that was true until the advent of electric assist. E-bikes now comprise a healthy 5% share of the bicycle market in the U.S. And as many new owners are discovering, e-bikes can offer a viable transportation alternative, reducing or even eliminating the need for a car. This week on Sea Change Radio we speak with e-bike executive Bill Klehm to get a snapshot of the industry, hear where he believes e-bikes are heading, and learn about his company’s unique distribution model.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Bill Klehm (BK) | 00:20 - I do think that the ride share investment that's now being doubled on is going to drive up the adoption of e-bikes, because more people will be trying them. You know, IBM in 1973 talked about this whole notion of the seven times rule. You don't truly change until you've experienced and can do something seven times. So with that, the more times we can create these experiences, the more opportunities we have to touch a customer and to have them consider our product.

Narrator | 00:52 - If you live in a hilly city (like I do), riding a bike for a quick errand can be an arduous proposition - at least that was true until the advent of electric assist. E-bikes now comprise a healthy 5% share of the bicycle market in the U.S. And as many new owners are discovering, e-bikes can offer a viable transportation alternative, reducing or even eliminating the need for a car. This week on Sea Change Radio we speak with e-bike executive Bill Klehm to get a snapshot of the industry, hear where he believes e-bikes are heading, and learn about his company’s unique distribution model.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:37 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Bill Clem. Bill is the CEO of e Bliss Global Bill. Welcome to Sea Change Radio.

Bill Klehm (BK) | 01:47 - Well, thank you very much for having me. Um, wonderful opportunity to kind of talk about one of my major passions, and that's e mobility and e-bikes. So thank you. 

Alex Wise (AW)  | 01:57 - Pleasure to have you on the show. So maybe you can give us a backdrop on the industry and where eBliss Global's model fits in all of this. 

BK | 02:06 - So, in 2016, there was 60,000 e-bikes sold in the US this year, by all stretches of the imagination, it's gonna be about 2.5 million. Keeping in mind that Toyota sells about 1.8 to 1.9 million cars. So e-bike industry in the United States has no, has now crossed over to a mass market product. Um, and it is now what I call a market segment of one. So that means that different channels of distribution, different product segments are starting to emerge. And what we, what we've done is taken a clean sheet approach to the industry. So in 2003, I started a company and made transmissions. So I made transmissions for the bike and e-bike industry, largely in Europe. So I got to sit around the campfire and watch Europe go from basically nothing to four or 5 million e-bikes a year over the period that I was, I was there with selling product. And so we decided to take a different approach to the US as we see the US taking a similar approach now to Europe in that e-bikes are becoming a fundamental piece of transportation, not just a toy. So one of our taglines is we are, we are transforming toys into transportation. So our, our approach is to take a and redesign the entire experience. So products are interesting, but what products do is create an experience for the consumer. And that experience, in our opinion, for a mass market product means one of no compromises. So customers who are buying these products today aren't really interested. They aren't in cyclist enthusiasts, they aren't people who like chains. They aren't people who like derailers. They aren't people who like maintenance. They want to like the experience of riding an e-bike and or a bik...