Luyuan is one of the largest e-bike manufacturers in China and is located in Jinhua in Zhejiang Province south of Shanghai. The company's strengths are technical know-how and after-sales service.
 

 
Luyuan Electric Vehicle Co., Ltd. is headquartered in Jinhua in Zhejiang Province south of Shanghai. The company is one of the earliest and meanwhicle largest e-bike manufacturers in China. Japan Cycle Press yearbook 2005 states that Luyuan manufactured 47,500 e-bikes in 2002 and increased production to 85,600 units in 2003. In 1997 the company started with only 1,000 units sold in a year. With a history of growth like this, Luyuan continues to have ambitious goals for the near future.

Large Product Range
Luyuan offers a wide range of products including e-bikes in bicycle and scooter-style as well as an electric folding bike. The current models and historic products are exhibited in the show room of the company--quite an impressive collection.
The frames are more or less the same with plastic covers in different designs.

Luyuan also develops and manufactures components for LEVs in cooperation with various suppliers. Complete wheels with hub motors are available from 16" to 26" sizes. As part of the electric drive system, Luyuan offers Lead-acid batteries ranging from 7Ah to 20Ah. Charger and controller are also provided by Luyuan.

Currently, Luyuan is working on a Lithium-Ion-Polymer system in cooperation with a batterty manufacturer in Guandong Province, China. The light weight battery will be launched in the folding e-bicycle first. This will make Luyuan the first manufacturer to introduce a Lithium system to the Chinese market.

Luyuan products belong to the upper class price range in China. E-bikes are between 170 and 220 US Dollars. President Mr. Ni Jie and General Manager Mrs. Hujihong put a lof of efforts into after-sales customer service, which is rare in China and justifies the higher price. They keep a customer's data base and remind buyers via sms to turn their batteries in for free maintenance.

Focus on Technical Know-How
Luyuan has its strengh in the technical field. Wheel building, frame welding, and vehicle assembly involve a lot of trained labor and technical know-how. The company is proud of its inhouse electronic development department and a large test laboratory for endurance testing of all components, in particular, batteries. With such background Luyuan also developes custom made complete systems in cooperation with overseas companies.

High Dynamic
The high dynamic impact of the Chinese economy in general can be notified in companies like Luyuan in small scale. Next to the first factory in Jinhua, Luyuan is setting up an immense second production facility. When ExtraEnergy visited Luyuan in April 2004, there was only flat land next to the original factory. At the second visit in Dezember 2004, the new factory building was already there. One month later, production was running already.

For the near future, Luyuan has ambitious goals. The company will be split up in two parts: In the new factory, Ni Jie wants to produce e-bikes for the Chinese market only. The old facility will be for manufacturing export products only. Currently, Luyuan's major market is, of course, China, followed by the USA and some countries in Europe. The Luyuan booth at IFMA Cologne in 2004 and Mr. Ni Jie's speech at the LEV Congress in Taiwan during Taipei Cycle Show in March 2005 are evidence of the company's international ambition.

In terms of production numbers, Luyuan wants to reach the 300,000 bench in 2005. This would more than double their production of 2004 of 118,000 units.

For the coming years, Luyuan is planning to include golf carts, neighbourhood vehicles, wheelchairs and other LEVs into the product range.

It is very worth mentioning, that Mr. Ni Jie has politically been involved when he represented a group of Chinese e-bike manufacturers in a law case against Chinese cities that prohibited the use of e-bikes in 2003/2004. Thanks to the group's efforts, they won the case and the ban has been withdrawn.


Company History:
1996: First electric bicycle built in a garage

1997: Luyuan Electric Vehicle Co., Ltd. was founded. Start of serial production. Luyuan hosted conference on standard for electric bike batteries. Making first international connections.

2002: Luyuan moved to it's first industrial factory and rapidly increased production quantity.

2004: Setting up second factory. Participation in the ExtraEnergy BikeWorld at IFMA Cologne, Germany. Start of international distribution.

2005: The new factory starts production.


Products
E-bikes (bicycle style)
E-bikes (scooter style)
Folding e-bike
Motors
Controllers
Chargers
Complete Systems

For details, please see Luyuan website


Contact
Jinhua Luyuan Electric Vehicle Co., Ltd
Luyuan 99, Industrial Estate, Jinhua City
Zhejiang Province
Tel: +86-579-22 72 528
Fax: +86-579-22 72 946
luyuanev@yahoo.com.cn
www.luyuan.cn
luyuan-ebike.com


Photos by Hannes Neupert and Susanne Bruesch



April 6, 2005