Peloton has dropped the price of its original Bike by $400, making it $1,495. This price reduction comes alongside the company’s 2021 financial earnings, which showed that the company grew less than expected, and lost more than it had predicted (via CNBC). The company reports that in the fourth quarter of its 2021 financial year, it had a net loss of just over $313 million.
While the company’s financial results certainly give it a reason to want to boost growth, this isn’t the original Peloton Bike’s first price drop. Its previous price point of $1,895 was the result of a price drop that happened alongside the introduction of the Bike Plus last September, which took it down from its original $2,245 price tag.
Peloton’s blog post about Wednesday’s price drop spins it a different way, saying that the price drop is a way to allow more people into the Peloton community, lowering the barrier of entry. Of course, the Bike is at its best when paired with a $40-a-month Peloton Membership — the more bikes Peloton sells, the more memberships it’s likely to get. Given that subscription profit is one of the places the company is being successful (Peloton reports 158.9 percent year-over-year growth in subscription gross profit for Q4), it’s likely the company wants to keep riding that high.
This news also comes as Peloton is getting ready to relaunch its lower-cost treadmill (appropriately named the Tread) at the end of August. When it was first announced, the $2,495 Tread was supposed to slot in under the more expensive Tread Plus, though Peloton currently isn’t selling that model due to a recall that stemmed from a series of injuries and one death. The Tread Plus recall, as well as the separate recall that delayed the Tread’s launch, are cited by CNBC and Peloton as part of the reason for the company’s financial woes last quarter.
Peloton may also have new products on the horizon to go along with its bikes and treadmills — it appears the company is finally working on its long-rumored rowing machine, and there are rumors that it’s working on a heart rate monitoring armband.
If the Bike’s price drop has intrigued you, you can read our review of it here.
