Ultra Motor has announced that its A2B electric bike is now available for purchase at 20 Best Buy locations on the west coast, including Los Angeles, Portland, and the San Francisco Bay area.

In the electric bicycle community, many view this as a regressive step that will hurt the industry and the Ultra Motor brand. As a person who has sold electric bicycles at both the wholesale and retail level, one factor that is paramount is customer support. While electric bicycles are fairly simple machines, they are much more sophisticated than traditional bicycles because of the motor, controller, and battery. To ensure safe operation and longevity, it is imperative that an electric bicycle is properly fitted to the rider, safety gear explained, and battery maintenance procedures reviewed. We just don’t think this will happen if big box stores are used as the retail outlet. We also think these stores will start to get a lot of unhappy customers and returns due to customers not being properly versed in the operation and maintenance.

So far, we do not know if the Best Buy stores in Canada will stock electric bikes…stay tuned.

We are passionate about electric bicycles becoming part of a sustainable transportation solution. The industry has already suffered due to a proliferation of junk electric bike and electric scooter products. What the industry does not need is substandard channels of retail sellers to further tarnish the image of the good products.

As always, we welcome your comments and feedback – maybe some of the folks at Best Buy and Ultra Motor can tell us why they think this channel makes sense.