Tariffs and E-Bikes: What It Means for Upway and the Industry

Written by: Maxime Renson | April 7, 2025 | Time to read 7 min

What is the impact of tariffs on Upway’s business?

More about the Author: Maxime Renson, General Manager at Upway

Graduated in engineering and business, I spent 6+ years at Uber across six countries before joining Upway’s founding team in 2022 to launch the U.S. business. Outside work, I bike, run, play golf and padel, and swim with my son.

Over the past few months, and even more so after the latest round of U.S. trade decisions last Wednesday, I’ve been getting the same question on repeat: “What’s the impact of tariffs on Upway’s business? Is this good for you? Or is it bad since your prices will also go up?" The answer, as you might expect, is: yes and no. Let me unpack that.

Table of Contents

Introduction

First things First

Headwind for the Industry

The Brightside for Upway

What's Next

Final Thoughts

First things First

I won’t dive into whether the tariffs are a good or bad policy—there are plenty of opinions on that already.

Some say it’s a strategic power move. Others call it an economic necessity for a major importer like the U.S. Some think it’s a way to revitalize domestic manufacturing, or maybe even encourage investors to buy U.S. treasuries. There are theories about counteracting inflation, leveling global trade, and long-term economic gains. Whatever your take is, one thing is clear: the tariffs are here, and the current administration seems determined to keep them in place—at least for now.

Headwind for the Industry

Let’s start with the challenging impact for Upway. We are part of the industry, we all believe in the long-term potential of the e-Bike market in the U.S. a lot. If you look at Germany for comparison. If the U.S. hits the same 8% e-Bike penetration rate by 2030, we’d go from today’s ~2 million e-Bikes to 28 million in circulation. That’s not just massive growth—it’s a $70 billion market opportunity.

Here’s the reality: around 90% of e-Bikes (or at least 50% of their parts) are produced in Asia. That includes many of the most popular and innovative brands in the market. Most of them are produced in Taiwan, China and Vietnam.

Giant electric bike and range extender battery

That level of cost increase could have ripple effects throughout the supply chain:

Manufacturers are challenged
Retail prices tend to increase
Job security may be impacted
Consumer adoption risk slowing down

And that last point is likely the one that could delay the U.S. e-Bike market in reaching its full potential.

In short, tariffs can hinder economies of scale, diminish the availability of used products, and delay innovation within the industry. This results in all stakeholders—manufacturers, retailers, leasing platforms, and marketplaces (including Upway)—facing additional challenges in driving mass market adoption.

The Brightside for Upway

In the short to mid-term, Upway may find itself in a more favorable position. Similar to companies like Carvana and CarMax—which analysts view positively after the tariffs announcement—businesses specializing in certified pre-owned products may benefit from some tailwinds.

Indeed at Upway, we don’t manufacture bikes. We source used e-Bikes from the U.S., refurbish them in the U.S., and resell them in the U.S.

So while the tariff headlines are impacting many in the industry, we're in a slightly better position:

No import tariffs
Access to 2–3 million pre-tariff bikes already in the US market
Prices staying low while new product prices tend to increase
Lower risk for buyers compared to new imports

That said, we’re not immune. Prices in the broader market are going up, and we’ll feel some of that too. But relatively speaking, we can offer better value, more stability, and a more sustainable alternative in the short and mid term and that could be a catalyst for our business. We also believe that the current administration and the next will need to find ways to incentivize the second hand market in multiple industries if they want to keep such aggressive tariffs.

What’s Next: Push Together, Grow Together

First, there is hope! It is not the first time the industry has been hit with tariffs and the market kept on growing. Cars are also getting more expensive and replacing these expensive short car trips (80% of car trips in the US are less than 10 miles) becomes a necessity.

Riese and Muller electric bike and battery

Second, there may be short-term advantages for Upway, but our goal is to help our partners and the industry grow for the long term. We are confident we can work together to build a healthy, thriving ecosystem (manufacturers, retailers, leasers, rentals, resellers).

That’s why we’re doubling down on:

Trade-in programs: Exchange your old e-Bike for credit toward a new one.
Buy-back guarantees: Upway offers to repurchase your e-Bike within a set period, giving you added peace of mind.
Subscription offerings: Rent an e-Bike with flexible monthly plans instead of purchasing outright.

To keep on reducing the cost of ownership and to continue to support the ecosystem—even in tough times. As an example, shops that fully leverage our trade-in programs can generate up to 20% of their sales through trade-ins. We are committed to find other ways to push sales of new bikes at our partner retailers and manufacturers, think about an buy back guarantee powered by Upway for each new bike purchase or somehow make the rest of the industry profit from an Upway sale via maintenance & professional assembly, drop off or pick up services.

Final Thoughts

Tariffs or no tariffs, the goal stays the same: get more people riding e-Bikes. That means making them accessible, affordable, and trusted. If we play this right—collaborating instead of competing—we can still reach that 2030 vision. And at Upway, we’re ready to ride.