Last year, the bicycle manufacturers were not able to produce as much as was demanded. The ZIV umbrella organization has now announced that eBikes in particular are booming.
Burkhard Stork can’t help but grin: “The federal government wanted to have one million electric vehicles on the market by 2022,” says the managing director of the Zweirad-Industrie-Verband (ZIV), “and by that he meant electric cars. We’re now at a stock of 8.5 million electric bicycles.” The bicycle industry has “made Germany the leading market for electric mobility – and without any generous subsidies.”
The ZIV has now presented limited success figures for the year 2021. The share of eBikes in the market is therefore approaching the 50 percent mark. The number of cargo bikes in particular is increasing rapidly. The number of new cargo bikes powered by muscle power doubled to 47,000 last year. On the other hand, the number of cargo bikes with electric drives grew by 120,000. Only a small part of the overall market. According to the ZIV, the number of pedelecs sold has risen from 1.95 to 2 million. The number of bicycles fell from 3.09 to 2.7 million: Overall, the number of units sold fell from 5.04 million to 4.7 million – and was “still well above the pre-Corona level”.
Online trade is booming everywhere – just not in the bicycle industry, says Stork. His share of sales has therefore continued to decrease. On the other hand, the importance of the specialist trade has increased with 76 percent of sales. Discounters, self-service supermarkets and hardware stores have lost market share. The average selling price of a bicycle in 2021 was 1,395 euros – ten years earlier you only had to invest 495 euros. There are a total of 81 million bicycles and eBikes in Germany.
2.37 million units were produced in Germany: 1.43 million pedelecs and 0.94 million bicycles. The total value was 6.56 billion euros. Of these, 1.56 million units were exported, most of them within the EU. The main buyers were the Netherlands. 4.14 million bicycles and pedelecs were imported to Germany, primarily from Cambodia, Bangladesh and Poland. The main importer of eBikes is Bulgaria with 17 percent.
Stork is certain: “If we had had more goods available, we would have sold more.” The main problem in addition to pandemic and flood-related plant closures and disrupted supply chains: “We lack workers.” His conclusion: “The limited ability to deliver and the perception that bikes were sold out prevented an even better performance.”
Source: Stern
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