Jipe

They sold about 60000 bikes in 2020. They could have sold more if they could produce more.

The amount of bike sold was limited by the manufacturing capabilities due partly to parts availability but also the manufacturing capacity of the factory.

The plant could produce up to 100000 bikes a year assuming there are enough people to build 100000 bikes which wasn't the case.

Doubling the production in one year without prior notice due to a totally unexpected external cause like it happened for the covid crisis isn't possible.

About an Asia made new folding bike, people must understand that in the bike market, folding bikes is a niche market even Dahon is a small company compared to the big player of the bike industry.

Asiatic manufacturers prefer to invest in eBikes where the market size is much bigger and is still growing very fast than in a niche market of maybe 50000 bikes a year assuming they could sell as many bikes as Brompton without any brand name.

Also, the investment to develop a new folding bike and the needed components is bigger than for a normal bike because all folding bikes require some specific components that must specifically be developed and then are only produced in small quantities.

The manufacturing price of a folding bike is higher than of a normal bike meaning that to have big margins the price must be higher.

There is clearly a demand for a folding lightweight eBike, but such a bike requires a specific E-assist system to fit into a folding bike without making it bigger and heavier which means higher cost for this E-assist system (you could think to use the Fazua E-assist system developed for high end road race eBikes which is small and lightweight and could probably be integrated into a folding bike but this system is very expensive and would result in a too expensive folding eBike).

Asiatic bike manufacturers aren't stupid, they know the bike market they know the Brompton, if there was (big) money to earn with a clone, they would have done it since a long time.