With the gradual withdrawal of relevant support policies, the electric bicycle industry is shifting from being driven by policy dividends to a new stage of development that pays more attention to market rules and relies more on product strength. In the past period, many companies have been accustomed to expanding their scale through subsidies and seizing the market through low prices. Although this development model is effective and has a low threshold, it is difficult to support the stable and long-term development of the enterprise. Practice has shown that only by truly getting rid of path dependence on policy subsidies and focusing on technological innovation, quality improvement, and value creation can enterprises gain an advantage in fierce market competition.
The subsidy policy played an important role in the early cultivation of the electric bicycle industry, effectively activating market demand and promoting the rapid popularization of green travel modes. However, long-term dependence on subsidies can easily lead to inertia in enterprises, weaken innovation drive, and even fall into the misconception of emphasizing scale over research and development, emphasizing cost over quality. Some companies focus a lot of energy on cost compression and price competition, neglecting breakthroughs in core technologies and product performance upgrades; Some enterprises lack long-term layout and face operational pressure once policy adjustments are made. This excessive reliance on external dividends in development not only hinders the enhancement of core competitiveness of enterprises, but also hinders the industry's progress towards high-end, intelligent, and secure directions.
The essence of market competition ultimately lies in the competition of product strength, rather than simple price competition. A truly competitive hardcore product is a comprehensive reflection of technology, quality, safety, and user experience. For electric bicycle companies, to get rid of subsidy dependence, innovation should first be placed at the core of development, focusing on key aspects such as battery safety, endurance, intelligent control, and lightweight design, continuously increasing research and development investment, and building competitive barriers with technological advantages. At the same time, we must adhere to the bottom line of quality, strictly implement national standards, strengthen full process quality control, take safety, reliability, and durability as the basic requirements of products, and win the trust of users with excellent quality.
The policy retreat is precisely an important opportunity for the survival of the fittest, optimization and upgrading of the industry, and also a window period for high-quality enterprises to stand out. The automotive glass industry used to have local subsidies and policy support, but Fuyao Glass never relied on subsidies for profit, insisting on high research and development investment, full industry chain development, and building a solid foundation of quality; The photovoltaic industry has relatively high subsidies, and many companies rely on subsidies to survive. However, in the early stages of development, Sunac Power focused on technology research and development and did not compete for low prices... Enterprises that actively train their internal strength often seize opportunities and win the initiative in market adjustments with differentiated, high-quality, and high value-added products.
In the long run, bidding farewell to subsidies and returning to the market will not only force electric bicycle companies to enhance their endogenous development momentum, but also promote the entire industry to shift from scale expansion to quality improvement. Enterprises should actively change their mindset, invest more resources in research and development innovation, intelligent manufacturing, and service upgrading, and focus on strengthening products and improving quality. They should shift from "price competition" to "value competition" and from "subsidies" to "strength", and use their own advantages to gain greater development space. (Source: Economic Daily Author: Xiang Meng)
(Editor in charge: Nian Wei)
