FIVE is bringing to the North American market the “Made In Italy electric bicycles”

We asked Gary Fabris, the Export Manager of FIVE a few questions about exporting the Italian design to Canada and the USA

FIVE Srl, is an Italian e-mobility company selling electric cars, e-scooters, e-bikes and is a manufacturer of e-bike battery packs in Bologna, Italy. They have become the largest electric bicycle manufacturer in Italy. Italwin e-bikes, Wayel e-bikes, UGO Scooters and Today Sunshine Motors Electric Cars e-bikes are sold by a network of bike dealers throughout Europe, distribution in Australia and South America and from BF Global Trading Ltd. in Atlantic Canada.

We see from your company profile that FIVE is a 100% Green company and is diversified with various green transportation technologies, what is the new thing happening at FIVE?
Gary: We built from the ground up a 100% Green e-bike factory. It is a “Zero Energy Building” (ZEB) meaning the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is equal to the amount of renewable energy created at our factory site. We do this with solar energy to power the factory and to return the excess energy back to the electric grid. Our water-based painting lines not only reduce environmental pollution, but we also recycle the heat generated in the paint drying rooms to heat the factory and the adjoining administrative offices during colder days.

It is unusual to find an Italian-made e-bike in the USA market that is made in Italy. What parts of the e-bike are produced in Italy?
Gary: In the early days we experimented with importing e-bikes made in China but we found the technology and the quality of the components was lacking and not up to European expectations. We could not find a manufacturer in China who could guarantee us almost zero defects. With quality in mind and building a better e-bike, 4 years ago, we built the FIVE e-bike factory in Bologna that now boasts a 70,000 square foot factory and warehouse building. It was a much larger manufacturing plant than what we needed at the time, but we are glad we did it in consideration of the recent boom in the e-bike industry. Today we are lucky to have plenty of manufacturing capacity to keep up with the recent surge of e-bikes in the world markets. We design and produce our own bike frames in Italy and then we custom paint them with environmentally safe water-based paints. We make all our battery packs with quality materials and use the best battery cells to increase the travel distance of the bike. We also put a lot of effort to find the perfect settings on our F90 center drive motors that is among the best in the industry for power, operations, and energy consumption.

What are you presently seeking to do in the North American market concerning the sales of your Italian-made e-bikes?
Gary: Since we are the newcomer to the USA and Canada markets, our first step is to find importers in key metropolitan cities or regions. We want to give them a territory for a specific area that they can service with inventory and repair parts. We already have our first importer in the USA who is covering the Washington D.C. area which is a huge biking city. DC has bike lanes that goes up the center of the streets all the way up to Capitol building and around DC. We started distribution also in Western Canada with an importer located in Vancover, a very ebike friendly city. We are looking for bike stores or business people who can import and distribute our bikes for their service area.

What should one do if they would like to sell the FIVE Italian ebikes in the USA or Canada?
We have a strong support system for our distributors. Not only do we support them with factory direct technical help but we also have a USA Sales Agent who will help new distributors with shipping logistics, training, samples and promotional materials. We are seeking win-win cooperation with our importers and distributors. Another key point is we provide all our distributors with free spare parts with each shipment so that you can support your customers with their repair and bike servicing needs.

What makes the FIVE e-bikes better than the other e-bikes on the market?
Gary: The first thing is our obsession with quality. We want to make our e-bike better but at the same time keeping the e-bike at an affordable price to the consumer. It is important that the functions of the e-bike are in tune with long and short-distance biking. For example, we only use the best gearing components, braking systems, motors and tires for a safe e-bike experience.

We welcome your inquiry to partner up with us to sell the best Italian-made e-bikes in the USA and Canada markets.