The future of the power wheel chair industry
With the increasing aging of the global population and the steady growth in the number of disabled population, the demand for power wheel chairs and carts is showing a significant growth trend. Faced with the plight of mobility problems, more and more elderly people are relying on power wheel chairs as an important mobility tool in their daily lives, while the disabled population is in dire need of power wheel chairs to meet their mobility needs.The market size of China's Power Wheel chair Industry was 6.972 billion RMB in 2023, representing a year-on-year growth of 8.13%. With the growing prominence of the aging problem in China, the demand for electric wheel chairs is expected to continue to increase, thus driving the market size of the entire industry to rise further.
Definition and Classification
Electric wheel chair is a kind of wheel chair that utilizes electric power drive, usually with power supply, motor, controller and other components installed in its infrastructure, relying on the motor as a power source, and through the operation of the control device to control the motor to drive the wheel chair to complete the movement of moving forward, backward, steering and so on. Compared with manual wheel chairs, electric wheel chairs are characterized by a wide range of activities and energy saving. According to the classification of places of use, electric wheel chairs can be divided into indoor-type electric wheel chairs, outdoor-type electric wheel chairs, road-type electric wheel chairs.
Industry Policy
With the gradual aggravation of China's aging population, the demand for power wheel chairs and other rehabilitation aids continues to grow. The state promotes the convergence and integration of rehabilitation medical treatment and rehabilitation aids configuration services through relevant policies, providing a strong guarantee for the market demand for power wheel chairs, etc. In January 2024, the State Council issued the Opinions on the Development of the Silver Economy and Improvement of the Well-being of the Elderly, which puts forward to vigorously develop the rehabilitation aids industry. Promote the upgrade of hearing aids, orthotics, crutches, prosthetics and other traditional functional compensatory rehabilitation aids, and the development of intelligent wheel chairs, lifts, rehabilitation care beds and other life care products. Driven by the policy, the electric wheelchair industry will accelerate technological innovation and product upgrading. With the promotion of policy and the growth of market demand, the electric wheel chair industry will gradually achieve standardization and normative development. This will help improve product quality and safety, reduce production costs and selling prices, and further promote the expansion and popularization of the market.
Development history
China's power wheel chair industry has experienced four stages of development: the initial period before 2000, the number of Chinese power wheel chair manufacturers, low technological content, poor quality and weight, slow growth in exports, domestic consumption is very small. 2001-2008 period of rapid development, China's power wheel chair production and marketing scale began to expand, the leading enterprises gradually revealed the economies of scale, the scale of rapid growth in exports, and become an important foundry of electric wheel chairs around the world. During the structural transformation period from 2009 to 2014, under the influence of the financial crisis in the U.S., China's power wheel chair exports grew slowly, the domestic economy continued to develop, the aging of the population appeared, the domestic demand grew rapidly, and the competition intensified.During the maturity period from 2015 to the present, the demand of the domestic market continued to grow, the trend of demand upgrading was obvious, and the enterprises' Competitiveness is further enhanced, exports gradually rebound, the domestic market has become the most important driving force for industry growth.
Industry barriers
1、Technical barriers
Electric wheel chair industry has high technical barriers, which is mainly reflected in the product design, manufacturing and quality control. With the increase of intelligent and personalized demand, electric wheel chairs need to integrate more high-tech elements, such as intelligent navigation systems, automatic obstacle avoidance technology, multi-functional integrated control system. The research and development of these technologies not only requires a large amount of capital investment, but also requires a professional R&D team and long-term technical accumulation. In addition, the safety, stability and durability of the electric wheel chair is also an important part of the technical barriers, the product must pass strict quality testing and certification, to meet national and industry safety standards.
2、Capital Barriers
Electric wheel chair industry has high financial barriers, mainly because product development, production line construction, marketing and after-sales service and other aspects require substantial financial support. Especially in product innovation and technology upgrading, enterprises need to continuously invest to maintain competitiveness. In addition, the establishment of a sound sales network and service system also requires considerable capital investment. For new entrants, without sufficient financial strength is difficult to gain a foothold in the industry, and for existing enterprises, the stability of the capital chain is also directly related to its survival and development.
3、Policy and regulatory barriers
As a kind of medical device, electric wheel chair is regulated by strict national policies and regulations. Enterprises in the production and sales process need to comply with the relevant quality management standards for the production of medical devices, the product must obtain a medical device registration certificate before listing. At the same time, with the state's emphasis on the welfare of the elderly and rehabilitation aids industry, the relevant policies are constantly updated and improved, companies need to adapt to policy changes in a timely manner to meet the new regulatory requirements. In addition, there may be differences in policy implementation and standards in different regions, and enterprises need to overcome regional policy and regulatory differences when expanding the market, which also constitutes a certain barrier to entry.
Industry Chain
The upstream of the electric wheel chair industry chain is PC material, rubber material, aluminum alloy, motor, battery, controller, sensor and so on. The middle reaches of the industry chain are the manufacturers of electric wheel chairs. The downstream of the industry chain is medical equipment stores, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, online shopping malls and so on. End-users include the elderly, the disabled, people recovering from injuries and illnesses, and other groups that need mobility assistance.
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