Source: Bike Europe

The LEVA-EU member showcased its new concept bike at Vellofollies last month in an exclusive area that required pre-access and no mobile phones. The speed pedelec, which is expected to make its debut at the event’s next edition in 2027, will mark the efforts of four years’ work and the “future of Stromer”.

The new process started under the leadership of Tomi Viiala, who has recently launched his new brand Viiala with the similar objectives of targeting the 2027 premium e-bike market with highly sophisticated technology and innovation.

“Either you innovate, or you are dependent on an off-the-shelf system,” Kobe Broos, chief commercial officer (CCO) for MyStromer Group, confirmed to Bike Europe during Velofollies, as the company embarks on a new chapter after a turbulent couple of years.

A new chapter after challenging market conditions

“As a brand, we experienced double-digit growth until 2022.We were the market leader in a new segmentation where the market was growing. Further growth was also forecast for 2023 and 2024 following the supply chain limitations of 2021 and 2022. We pre-purchased based on these forecasts, so these commitments stood. As the market started to decline, retailers’ stocks already covered demand. Obviously, we were delivering less to retailers, so our stock position started growing. As a result of this, financial instability was a fact at MyStromer,” explained Broos about the company’s recent position.

Also in the last couple of years Stromer has had several management changes. After the departure of its co-CEOs, it appointed an interim CEO to stabilise the company, while addressing the challenges it was encountering. At Vellofollies, Broos stated that the stabilisation process was not complete, but a new CEO was confirmed a few days after the show.

A positive outlook for 2026

Broos has said that the company has decreased its stock to zero or a healthy level for both retailers and Stromer, with the brand’s purchase forecast for 2026 being extremely low and healthy.

“This means that we are not under pressure, our retailers are not under pressure. My prediction is that if everything goes a little bit as planned, then we are in a very stable position for 2026 regarding sales, stock of bikes and sell-out,” explained Broos.

The Stromer COO has acknowledged potential risks of low forecasting, but has clarified that the brand doesn’t want to have remaining stock at the end of 2026.

“I am quite happy in the position we are currently in. Toward our stakeholders and partnerships, we are a sustainable, willing partner, ready to support their commercial needs, and we will not drown our retailers or ourselves. In that sense, we are stabilised, but let’s be honest, low volumes are not where we need to be to cover our operational costs. We are not loss-making, but we are also not in a position that we intend to be in again next year.”

Diversifying with a new concept

Despite evident market challenges, MyStromer’s private equity owners, Naxicap, believed that it was important to invest and reposition the company.

“What we are presenting here at Velofollies is an innovative concept which is top of the line. We are very much aware that we need to diversify,” Broos explained.

Similarly to Viiala, there is a lot of secrecy about the actual bike in development, although it has been confirmed that Stromer is innovating its own digital architecture with technology at the forefront. In 2023, it onboarded a technology hub in Romania to facilitate this with the development of the back end of its new system.

Stromer developing its own architecture

Broos explained that Stromer having its own architecture is a deliberate choice for future-proofing the investment involved in designing the new range.

“There is no existing system in the market which is ready to communicate with different parts or different technologies, let alone foreseeing power. We will have a base system capable of delivering 250 watts to the peripherals. The more you add on in technology, the more base power you need.”

“Also, we want to be in charge if something is invented next year that we do not yet know about. For example, ten years ago, you would never have said that features such as APS, V2X, or cameras would be on a bike, yet today they are a reality. The open architecture allows us to plug in and play whatever technology is coming our way.”

Broos explains that building the Stromer architecture from scratch makes them big innovators in the market, with no other company having done that, with the exception of Viiala.

In terms of pricing, Broos has not confirmed the those of of the 2027 range, but stated that Stromer will “not outprice ourselves from our user base” and implied to Bike Europe that the new bike’s investment has to be justifiable to customers.