EM parts are expensive. This is true even by trials bike standards. Adding insult to injury, the system EM has in place for buying parts is to use the Central Powersports Distribution website. As part of creating an account, you “...choose your favorite dealer from the drop down menu. If you don't have a favorite dealer, select this option in the drop down menu and we'll use the dealer closest to you.” This is to “...make sure your Electric Motion Dealer gets the proper commission.”
So, I do all the work and some dealer gets a commission? Other parts vendors compete for your business by giving technical support or discounted pricing. Hopefully, I won't need many OE parts. When I do, I'll select Ka Uila Motors in Hawaii, as John has been putting up useful YouTube videos.
Every price I've seen ends in “99”. I'm wondering if this is a method to indicate retail pricing. I'm just speculating, but maybe dealer and importer costs have different cents amounts?
The following prices are a snapshot taken in January 2023. There seems to be a great deal of fluidity in the pricing. For example, the current (April 2023) price of an Epure motor controller is $10,000 (not a typo). Either they don't really have any available or do not want to sell any. Similarly, the Epure rotor position sensor was listed as being “obsolete” as of April 2023, and I did not see an alternate part listed as a substitute.
July 2025 update: addition pricing information added.
Note: Individual stickers for the 2021 Epure Race are not sold. You must buy a complete kit.
EM's rear sprocket costs nearly double that of a custom-made sprocket.
The following speaks to me. It's my lightly-edited version of a business model proposed by Jotagas of America. Italicized text used with permission.
Our goal is to sell you the best off-road motorcycle that we can, and replacement parts for that motorcycle at the best possible prices. How do we do that? By keeping our overhead low and selling directly to you the customer without the middlemen.
It’s always bothered us to look at the cost of the motorcycle or part at the manufacturer’s cost and then see what you, the customer, actually paid for it. Here’s a real-world example from a brand that we formerly sold: A 300cc two-stroke cost us $7400. We sold it to the dealer for $8400 plus $400 to ship it to him. He sold it to you for $9900. Why not just sell it to you for the $8400?
And most of the bikes were “sold” by us anyway. The customer would call us for information because they knew that we, the US distributors, knew more about the product than anyone else except the manufacturer. Even if the customer went to the dealer to buy their motorcycle, they still called us first, 90% of the time. Don’t get me wrong… we understand what the dealer does every day and that they have their hands full running their business. They don’t have time to figure out every minor detail about the bike as we do. They are not a gathering point for information like we are on almost everything that the bike does well and everything that breaks on the motorcycle like we are. They don’t talk to the factory that builds the bike every day by phone or email as we do. They don’t visit the factory a couple of times each year as we do. We simply feel that we, the US distributor for Jotagas, can give you more information about the motorcycles than anyone else in this country.
Every time a part goes through someone hands, it pretty much doubles in price. A part that costs us $5 costs the dealer $10 and the customer $20. I’m okay with that if the dealer spends the money and effort to stock parts, but not if they only order the part when YOU need it. Every brand out there has a few dealers who have built a business model around stocking a big number of parts and selling them through the internet because the local dealer doesn’t stock parts. Again… I get it. A dealer with a new small brand may sell 5 bikes a year and might make $500 each. That’s $2500 gross profit. He’s not going to buy $10,000 in parts. Yeah, there’s an argument that he should, and he could make money that way. But a lot of small dealers who sell these brands don’t have a spare $10k for parts. So, if I’m going to spend $50,000 to stock the parts, and they have to be ordered anyway, why not just sell them to the customer? We make our same margin. You save money. You buy more parts. You tell your friends how much money you’re saving. We sell more! Quite a concept, isn't it?
Unfortunately, Jotagas was killed-off during COVID-19 when the factory was unable to source parts. The Jotagas of America website remains mostly due to inertia.