How Trump Tariffs Will Affect Retail in the US for NIU Electric Scooter

Posted by FreeMotion Shop on December 10th, 2019

NIU is among the most successful electric scooter producers in China and they are preparing to start their sale and operation in the USA. However, this highly anticipated appearance in the USA will highlight higher costs than formerly anticipated because of import taxes inflicted according to the Trump administration.

Its impact on the NIU electric scooter pricing:

The electric scooters launched by NIU have won praises all across Europe and Asia for their best quality styles & designs, advanced features, and great performance. People in America have waited for years now, if not decades for NIU electric scooters to begin their operations in the USA and that time is finally drawing near. NIU has already got DOT permission for four different models of its scooters and will soon be available for purchase in the US by the end of this year. However, a new report from Li Yan, NIU’s CEO has now shed some new information on how can the Trump administrations hefty 25% taxes will influence NIU’s local policy in the USA. The prospect doesn't look very good.

Yan seems to indicate that more and unusual higher cost of the NIU’s electric scooters in the US is caused due to Trump's tariffs and this will be passed on to the customers. He also stated that his clients in the US would have to take care of the losses and so he definitely hopes that the tariffs would be lowered. While this should not be a piece of shocking news to the customers, there was little optimism that the company might be able to take care of the costs partly which is caused due to new excise policy. 

The trade conflict!

In Europe, NIU’s scooters are rated ,500 to ,500 which mainly depends on the model being used. Precise price range for the US sale is yet to be openly advertised. The Trump administration’s increasing trade conflict with China has had a notable adverse impression and impact on the 2-wheeled electrical vehicle’s manufacturing and business in the US. The initial trade conflict casualties between the US and China were the Electric bicycles launched in the US. They faced an early-round of 25% tariffs which was quite a big sum. Despite a lot of significant efforts made by the private citizens as well as the USA’s bicycle industry, the taxes were not reduced and stayed at 25 %, for the last year. 

Even though some producers, like Rad Power Bikes, at first raised the price range depending on the taxes but then went back to the prices at pre-tariff ranks, eventually deciding to consume the impact themselves. The other modest organizations were incapable of sustaining their losses & heightened economic burden of the taxes and were compelled to pass along the price to customers by retailing the electric scooters at higher rates. While several electric bicycle companies are hit by the tariffs of Trump administration, run between 0-,500, NIU’s e-scooters would be valued anyplace between 2-3x more in the USA.

NIU’s e-scooters already have a good presence when it comes to the USA market but aren’t yet accessible for direct sales. The NIU e-scooters in the US were previously being used by Revel, which is an e-scooter sharing service operating in the NYC. All of the 1,000 electric scooters used in the Revel program in NYC is the NIU’s N-sharing model. The NIU’s similarly-styled NGT model is their latest model so far and highlights a highly powered mid-drive engine with a battery of 4.2 kWh. The NGT can attain a speed of around 43mph (70 km/h), unlike the N-sharing models which have a maximum speed limit of just 29mph (48 km/h).

The dual impact

Trump Administration's Tariff policies play a dual role. They can affect the NIU both in a positive way as well as in a negative way.  It is true that the taxes are pretty high and this will raise the total cost and hence will be a pressure on the consumer but this also has a positive side. Although the extended price has been a tremendous disappointment but one can’t really blame the NIU in this case. This is because the Trump administration has decided that American citizens should pay heavily for sustainable and eco-friendly vehicles like these.

It gets more worse given that Trump’s new policy consistently demonstrates a lack of information regarding the party who is finally going to pay for the Tariffs, mistakenly thinking that the Chinese exporters would pay for the taxes, as against the US corporations who are actually paying the duties when shipping the goods (and then finally the US customer who spends on a higher local price). The burden ultimately falls on the consumer. But at the same time, it is encouraging because it at least confirms that NIU is still on route to start retail businesses in the US local market. Americans have been anticipating this for a long time.

Save the environment

NIU offers some really impressive scooters and people in America can’t wait to finally get their hands on the NGT, for which they have been patiently waiting. Argument made in favor of increased taxes states that the tariffs are created to promote local production. As it turns out there are actually home-grown companies in the US which produces a US-made e-scooter, called the GenZe 2.0. The reviews for this US-made electric scooter are also very good and show that this scooter is an excellent competitor of its Chinese counterpart.  But at this phase when battling climate change has ultimately started to catch the attention as well as the action that it deserves, it is not the right thing to increase the prices of these vehicles which has the ability to bring huge changes to the planet.

If our environment has to be saved, we need to make such environment-friendly vehicles available at more affordable prices for the common people. Hopefully, in the near future, the prices might come down or maybe the Trump administration will ease the tariffs so that these eco-friendly vehicles will become more affordable to every American customer. This will also be beneficial for our environment as these scooters don't add to pollution. So just get online and browse through a wide range of electric scooters to find the one that’s meant for you, at Freemotion Shop!

About the company:

The only aim of Freemotion is to be the leading brand in the industry and bring joy to their customer’s life in the most hassle-free manner. They provide high-quality products which are innovative and one of its kind. They believe in delivering a complete package which includes end-to-end customer support, excellent durability, and top-notch manufacturing.