How Is The Ebike Market / Sales In The UK & US

How Has COVID Impacted Ebike Market/Sales And Its Growth?

The e-bikes industry in the UK and US is booming right now.

People are always looking for alternatives to driving and commuting, and e-bikes are perfect for getting around town.

How does the e-bikes market look in the UK and US? Will it continue to grow? 

Let\’s find out!

Brief History of E-Bikes

Did you know that electric bikes have been around since the 1890s?

E-bikes were patented multiple times before the turn of the century.

The first patent for an e-bike was granted to Ogden Bolton Jr. on December 31, 1895

His version of the e-bike is a battery-powered electric bicycle with a \”6-pole brush-and-commutator direct current (DC) hub motor mounted in the rear wheel.\”

Two years after, Hosea W. Libbey was granted the second e-bike patent in 1897. His version is propelled by a double electric motor that was placed inside the crankset axle hub. This model is still a popular solution even today.

Another year later, another inventor, Matthew J. Steffens, was granted a patent for an e-bike. He invented a rear-wheel-drive e-bike. It used a driving belt along the outside edge of the wheel.

These basic electric bicycle concepts were the first and the starting point of the e-bike we know and love today.

How Has COVID Impacted Ebike Market/Sales And Its Growth?

The coronavirus (COVID) outbreak has impacted e-bike sales and growth.

Micro-mobility became essential transportation. 

Many people bought bikes because they were worried about getting stuck in traffic during rush hour or having a hard time commuting due to the lack of public transportation available.

Aside from convenience, it\’s also an excellent way to travel while social distancing compared to riding trains or taxis.

Ebikes are great for commuting because they\’re quiet, convenient, and environmentally friendly.

They\’re also a great way to stay active and just explore outdoors during the pandemic. 

Electric cargo bikes or e-cargo bikes are also rising in popularity. E-bike deliveries in cities can be faster than car deliveries and can lead to higher customer service ratings. 

Electric cargo bikes aren\’t only rising in popularity for adults. E-bikes with cargo space for kids are also booming.

Aside from those mentioned, there are still tons of e-bike and electric cargo bike usage that benefit many.

Although E-bikes were already a major growth segment in the cycling market before 2020, they have become even bigger. 

Between April and September 2020, it has a 92% year-on-year rise in electric bicycle sales and a 118% value increase.

In fact, one in every five-pound spent on a bicycle during the pandemic was spent on an e-bike.

That said, what does the bike market/sales actually look like?

How Is The Ebike Market/Sales In The UK?

Around 50,000 to 60,000 e-bikes were being sold each year pre-pandemic. 

In comparison, 160,000 e-bikes were sold in the year 2020. That means one is sold every three minutes.

Some reports state that e-bike sales in the UK rose to represent 23%, almost a quarter of the entire bicycle market sales value in 2020 – and it\’s predicted to grow even more.

What Is The Growth Rate Of The United Kingdom E-bike Market?

 The electric bicycle market in the UK is growing at a CAGR of 10.56% over the next five years.

What Is The Predicted Value Of The United Kingdom E-bike Market?

The UK electric bicycle market is expected to reach a value of 0.44 Billion USD in 2027.

How Is The Ebike Market/Sales In The US?

Electric bicycles are becoming increasingly popular worldwide. However, the USA still lags behind Europe and Asia in terms of acceptance.

Nonetheless, the USA is also seeing higher and higher growths each year in the electric bicycle market.

After an initial slump during the lockdowns, e-bike sales in the US reported more than a 100% increase in year-over-year sales.

The North America E-bike Market was valued at 0.9 Billion USD in the year 2018.

It is growing at a CAGR of 12.51% over the next five years.

The estimated number of e-bikes sold in the US in 2020 is 450,000 e-bikes.

In comparison, more than 880,000 e-bikes were sold in 2021.

For this year, some predict that more than 1 million e-bikes will be sold in the US. 

E-Bike Market in Europe

Electric bikes are becoming increasingly popular in European cities and countries. The number of people riding them has grown dramatically since 2009.

Only around 500,000 e-bikes were sold in Europe for the whole year of 2009.

In contrast, 2.6 million were sold in the year 2018. That\’s more than a 500% increase in annual bicycle sales in just nine years.

E-bikes are becoming increasingly popular in Germany, where e-bike sales grew by 36%, reaching 1 million units sold. They account for 44% of all European sales. 

Germany, together with Italy, France, and the Netherlands, leads the countries where e-bikes are sold in Europe.

More than half of the entire bicycle market for adults sold in the Netherlands were e-bikes in 2018, accounting for 21% of overall electric bicycle sales in Europe. 

In the same year, Spain also saw a 55% annual increase in e-bike sales. They sold a total of 111,297 e-bikes with an average price of 2,165 euros each.

These e-bicycle retail trends can also be seen in other countries, including Denmark and other Scandinavian countries.

There is also a big difference between the two leading regions in the e-bike market. While the Asian Pacific region accounts for about 80% of the global market share, Europe accounts for nearly 20%.

Who Is Leading In The E-bike Market/Sales?

China is the leading E-bike manufacturer in the world. They\’re also the lead when it comes to sales and the number of e-bike owners. Chinese cities also have the most e-bike riders on the streets. 

According to estimates created by Macquarie Research, there were 180 million e-bikes on the streets of China in 2013. This is substantially more than in other countries around the world.

China has been dominating the global e-bike industry for quite some time now. 

37 million e-bikes were manufactured in China in 2013, and 32 million of those were sold the same year. 

How Is China Staying Competitive?

E-bikes are more affordable in China compared to other e-bicycle manufacturers due to the cheapness of lead-acid e-bike batteries.

These batteries are less expensive than any other types of battery technologies and thus bring down the overall price of the e-bicycle.

As a result, e-bikes cost about $167 on average in China. In contrast, e-bicyclists in North America pay an average of $815 on e-bikes, while those in Western Europe spend an average of $1,547 on them.

Because of their affordable price, China-made e-bikes account for 85% of the global electric bicycle market share.

Final Words

The electric bicycle market has become huge and will continue growing in the future, especially with the government Incentives and government subsidies encouraging the population to switch to this healthier and eco-friendlier transportation option.

So now is the right time to be interested in them (we hope this article helped with that!)

See you in another article!

Last Updated on October 5, 2022 by Evan