Many factors combine to make velomobiles expensive. How can they become more affordable?

Velomobile prices shock potential buyers, but velomobile manufacturers are not getting rich selling them. Manufacturers are experimenting with ways to make velomobiles affordable. Here are some of the barriers they face.


Market Realities:

Not many people buy velomobiles, so any fixed costs of manufacture are spread over a small number of buyers. If there were more buyers, the prices would drop, but to lure more buyers, you need lower prices.


Scaling Problems and Materials Selection:

Body/chassis:

Zotefoam and Coroplast allow homebuilders to turn their trikes into a serviceable velomobiles, but the building process can’t be scaled up for mass production. These designs also require extra hardware to support the fairing, and it is particularly hard to provide the under-body splash protection that is found on commercial models. Of the commercial velomobiles, only Leitra is built on a trike frame; it hasn’t proven possible to increase its production because of the high skill needed to build it. Leitra’s fairings are available for use on other trikes. Other currently available shells include the Stormy Weather and the Pod. Most commercial velomobile production is based on aluminum sheet or molded fiberglass monocoque chassis construction. These are suitable for small-scale production, but each body still requires a lot of skilled hand work. (See the photos of Fred's Alleweder kit assembly.) To move up to mass-production, body/chassis designs need to be completely re-done. The Versatile is an early step in this direction, and its problems are instructive. Twintex is a glass-reinforced polypropylene-matrix material that is heat-formable. Although it has substantial advantages in being recyclable and impact-resistant, with clean, fast, and efficient production techniques, it was not easy to get the molding process working. Initial production of the Versatile was delayed, and its price had to be raised to cover the increased costs. Velomobiel.nl is experimenting with stamped metal body parts. This is another technology that requires bigger start-up costs than molded fiberglass, but it is scaleable and more ecological. If it were clear that velomobiles would sell, some large company with enough capital to get through the development phase would set up a mass-production facillity and quickly bring the price down under two thousand dollars. To reach that point by moving up from small-scale production is much harder and very risky -- in part because a manufacturer might go into debt to develop the better velomobile, only to have an automotive manufacturer move in and grab the market with a cheaper copy.

Componentry:

Velomobiles use many standard bike or trike parts, which saves on costs (although the low-maintenance Rohloff 14-speed hub which is standard or optional on several velomobiles does add quite a lot to the price). The non-standard parts include swing-arm assemblies for the rear wheel, and the steering/suspension system for the front. Several velomobiles share the same McPherson strut/Ackerman steering system. That uniformity saves money for the manufacturers but is a disincentive for further development. There is a lot of labor involved in welding the base-plates for the struts, heat-treating the strut assemblies, attaching the brakes and wheel mounts, and building up and installing the steering system. Production techniques that are cost-effective for producing three or four velomobiles a month often don’t lend themselves to automation. For example, a swingarm with a case enclosing the chain can be machined out of a block of metal by an individual operating a milling machine. It would be faster and less labor intensive to use a CNC machine (computer-numeric-controlled - an expensive piece of equipment) but the parts would still come off one at a time, generating a lot of scrap metal. Casting is faster, but not as accurate, and the production runs have to be large to bring down the unit cost. Johan Vrielink of Flevobike has been experimenting with thixomolding strong but lightweight magnesium alloy parts for HPV applications. The huge savings that mass-production allows tend to require big investments up-front.


Market Problems:

Fragmentation:

With human power, you have to make the most of every watt. A car buyer can choose a car for the biggest task he can imagine, and then use it for a single-person commute to work. Velomobiles are tailored to buyer needs and capabilities. For some, that means sacrificing cargo capacity for speed. Others sacrifice speed for weather protection. Velomobiles rarely fit a full range of rider sizes, because adjustability adds weight. This further narrows each velomobile’s potential market.

Access limitations:

Transport costs are a huge hinderance to wider velomobile marketing. Velomobiles are bulky and relatively fragile, generally requiring crates and careful handling for shipping. It is not easy to expand beyond the manufacturer’s geographic area.

Infrastructure deficiencies:

Places that are unfriendly to bicycles are at least as bad, or worse, for velomobiles. Adequate roads and parking, insurance structures with a place for non-car-owners, transportation alternatives for times when human power won’t do the job, and protection from motorist hostility are needed for cyclists of all sorts. Without them, large parts of the world are effectively off-limits for velomobiles as well as bikes.



Will velomobile prices ever come down?

Yes! Prices will come down because demand for velomobiles is increasing as people become aware of them; that will bring companies with mass-production expertise into the market. At the same time, experienced and motivated manufacturers such as Johan Vrielink of Flevobike and Ymte Sijbrandij of Velomobiel are working on ways to streamline velomobile production. Even without major design changes, velomobile costs could go down if more were being sold. Infrastructure improvements will allow demand to build further, making more of the sub-markets (small riders, fat riders, racers, commuters, etc.) viable. Rising fuel prices will free up space on the roads for human powered vehicles, while also increasing their mass-market appeal. There will be speed-bumps along the way; increased demand may drive prices up before it lets them go down. New manufacturers may fail -- or they may crowd out the older ones. This is a demanding and often risky business, but eventually velomobiles will move into a bigger niche and lose their early-adopter price penalty.

Mary Arneson