PowUnity started in the winter sports sector and launched an IoT solution for skis and snowboards. More and more retail partners then asked PowUnity to develop a similar product for e-bikes so, in 2018, the company consequently launched BikeTrax, a smart GPS tracker IoT solution for e-bikes. Sales increased so rapidly from the first month that they decided to commit 100% to the e-bike market.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
PowUnity: Our target group is e-bike manufacturers, fleet operators and riders. At the beginning, we offered the BikeTrax system exclusively to e-bike riders as a retrofit product. This allowed us to further develop our product and service as quickly as possible through direct end customer contact and to learn to understand the real problems of e-bike owners. We are now passing on this know-how to the e-bike manufacturers in order to launch fully integrated and mature “connected e-bike solutions” with them.
E.E: What’s the news about new products?
PowUnity: In spring 2022 we launch a new hardware version of BikeTrax. The IoT module is based on LTE-M with Narrowband IoT as fallback technology. It also comes with a Bluetooth module and an accelerometer and connects to the data bus (CAN-bus) of an e-bike. Additionally, we work together with E-Bike manufacturers on fully integrated IoT solutions for them including app and software development.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
PowUnity: The e-bike market is a fairly young market. Over the past 10 years the main goal was to make e-bike engines stronger, battery capacities bigger and at the same time move from a bulky to a sleeky and more integrated bike design. Today the bikes look great and there are only a few things that can be further optimized. However, when it comes to connectivity the e-bike industry is just starting to realize the potential behind it. That’s where we come in. Our goal is to push the topic of connected e-bike solutions and support e-bike manufacturers and fleet operators with the development.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
PowUnity: In the future (5-10 years from now) every e-bike will be a fully connected e-bike. There is now doubt about that.