site.btaBulgaria Is Europe's Second Largest E-Bike Assembler - Expert

Bulgaria has become a leading electric bicycle assembly hub in Europe, Nikolai Boyadzhiev, Economic Director at the Plovdiv-based Maxcom Company, said on Bloomberg TV Bulgaria on February 16. In this country the industry traces its beginnings to the 1990s. By 2022 Bulgaria was the EU's fifth-largest e-bike assembly centre, and in 2023 it moved up to second place, according to Boyadzhiev.

The local electric bicycle industry received a major boost in October 2022, when Maxcom and another large manufacturer, Leader 96 (headquartered in Rogosh, Plovdiv Region), announced investments in new plants worth BGN 120 million and BGN 50 million, respectively. Maxcom partnered with Austria's Pierer Group to build its new facility. Pierer owns the motorcycle brands KTM and Gas Gas.

Maxcom says on its website that it is one of the largest bicycle manufacturers in Eastern Europe. The company has been set on developing and expanding its business ever since its establishment in 1996. It began to export bicycles to the EU in 2001. Since then, more than 95% of the company's output has been sold on EU markets. Today, Maxcom, a member of the Maxeurope group, owns assembly and storage facilities on a total area of 40,000 square metres and an annual output capacity of over 400,000 bicycles (electric and other). This has been achieved through a consistent policy of continuous investment in business development and human resources.

Internationally, electric bikes became particularly popular after the COVID pandemic because they are associated with alternative transport, fast movement and a healthy lifestyle, Boyadzhiev told Bloomberg TV. According to him, the technology is developing very quickly. E-bikes account for 40% of all bicycles in Europe, which is the result of intense growth over the last few years.

It is different in Bulgaria. After the COVID pandemic, Bulgarian assembly companies had to settle for prolonged periods of component supply and had difficulty delivering their products within the agreed deadlines. Boyadzhiev noted that Maxcom uses components from more than 300 suppliers around the globe. The logistical part of the process was seriously disrupted, which affected planning, production and sales. Motors and batteries were particularly hard to get regularly. These problems are over now.

Demand for e-bikes in Bulgaria is lower than in the West, mainly due to the price factor, Boyadzhiev said. The average price of a Maxcom e-bike is EUR 1,600. The company's annual sales on the domestic market are in the order of dozens or hundreds of units.

Maxcom is helping the Vocational School of Mechanical Engineering (VSME) in Plovdiv to furnish two high-tech classrooms according to the highest contemporary standards. In this way the production activities are being carried over from the industrial plants to the school laboratories, VSME Head Teacher Kiril Saksanov said on Bloomberg TV. He commented: "We are building a very close link between manufacturing and training. The production mini-line we use in our school may be small, but it is enough to teach students everything about bicycle components and settings."