Amazon Says It Isn’t Involved With Echelon’s $500 ‘Peloton Killer’; Bars Bike From Platform

Peloton shares took a hit on Tuesday after Amazon supposedly unveiled a low-budget alternative that was priced at just $500, roughly one-fifth the price of a Peloton. Such a deal seemed almost too good to be true.

And as it turns out – it was.

Business Insider reported Wednesday morning that the “Echelon” “Prime Bike” that went on sale Tuesday isn’t “an Amazon product or related to Amazon Prime”, citing a statement from the company. As a result, Amazon has removed the product from its online store (it had become available “exclusively to ‘Prime’ customers”.

Even more bizarre, Echelon said in a press release that the bike had been developed “in collaboration with Amazon”. The company told Forbes on Wednesday that Echelon “does not have a formal partnership with Amazon”.

“We are working with Echelon to clarify this in its communications, stop the sale of the product, and change the product branding,” Amazon added.

That original press release has now been pulled from PR Newswire. The EX-P bike is marked as “currently unavailable” and the “Prime” name has apparently been removed from the listing.

But the product listing retains the “No. 1 New Release” tag.

However, another Echelon listing – the “Echelon Smart Connect Fitness Bike” – is still for sale, at prices starting at $1,500.

Neither Amazon or Echelon was willing to comment to Business Insider. In recent years, hackers and market scammers have successfully managed to get ‘fake’ news releases through to newswire services before. Could this be another example of deliberate manipulation?