E-Bikes Turns Bike Bizz into Big Billion Business

The growing popularity of electric bicycles is shaking up the European industry. While Germany is still by far the largest bicycle producing nation in Europe, it is currently being outnumbered in terms of value by the Netherlands.

The huge difference in pricing between a regular bicycle and a e-Bike is the reason behind the change in ranking.

E-Bike sale is marching on in many European countries. This is indicated by statistics published in the Market Reports from Bike Europe. As the trend is picking up rapidly e-Bikes are turning the bicycle industry into a big billion business.

The Dutch statistics agency (CBS) reports that the bikes produced in Europe last year valued € 1.9 billion, of which 30% came from the Netherlands. The second in ranking is Germany with € 340 billion (18% of the total market) and third is France with € 170 billion (8% of the total market).

In 2008 the total Dutch bike production output is valued at € 577 million, a rise of 20% related to 2007. The Netherlands owes this leading position to a high average value per unit. This amount was boosted in the past years by the rising popularity of e-Bikes. Due to the advanced technology the average value of an e-Bike is far above that of a standard bike. Last year the Dutch bought some 125,000 e-Bikes. That is approximately 10% of the market in volume. It is expected that this will rise to 25-30% in five years time.

Production Value of Bikes Made in the EU

Country	Value (in Euro)
The Netherlands	577,000
Germany	340,000
France	170,000
Italy	160,000
Poland	150,000
Portugal	130,000
Spain	80,000
Sweden	60,000
Lithuania	50,000
Belgium	50,000
Denmark	40,000
Bulgaria	30,000
Czech Rep	30,000
UK	20,000
Total	1,900,000

Source: Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (CBS), The Netherlands

Source: Bike Europe, Author : Jan-Willem van Schaik, picture: Bike Hacks