German bicycle market enjoys growth

It was good news for the German bicycle market this week after a positive year was announced by the ZIV. It is believed that the growing popularity of the e-bike is to thank for an average growth of over 7% over the last two years combined; this brought the total units sold figure to over 4.3 million.

Siegfried Neuberger, Managing Director of ZIV, has said “Cycling has become popular again in Germany, resulting in an increase in sales and production of bicycles, e-bikes, parts and components on the home market as well as in exports. 2014 was already a very positive year for the German bicycle industry, we are therefore all the more pleased that this positive trend continued. There are multiple reasons for this success; obviously the weather conditions have been in favour of cycling but we have also noticed an increased used of bicycles in everyday mobility as well as a growing importance of the bicycle as a trendy status symbol. We assess this development as very solid. Therefore, we are optimistic about the future.”

The recently released figures showed that imports of e-bikes in Germany has nearly doubled between 2013 and 2015 and sales have increased from 410,000 to nearly 540,000 in the same two year gap. After a small decrease in 2014, production of e-bikes also increased to its highest point in the three years. Neuberger continued “Since the bicycle and e-bike have the same legal status, companies can offer them as an attractive alternate for a car to commute. Also, a growing number of transportation companies understand the potential of e-cargobikes for their logistic challenges, especially in cities, and offer a new range of logistic solutions.”

This is all positive news for Germany as the market as a whole grew by 6.6% which was slightly less than the previous year but still growth nonetheless. It’s also fair to say that e-bikes have made huge strides forward in the last couple of years and this shows no signs of slowing down; in fact, a 11% growth was experienced this year alone.

So what did this all mean in terms of money? - Over €2.4 billion was brought in through the sales of bicycles (of any kind) which is an increase of 12% when compared to 2014. The rise in popularity of the e-bike has also meant that the average price per unit has increased to just less that €560; 5% rise from the year before. However, it wasn't just e-bikes that helped the average price to rise, according to ZIV a higher quality of bike was being produced over the last twelve months too.

This growth for Germany didn't necessarily come ‘out of the blue’ as the end of year reports from Accell Group suggested that the news would be positive. The report said “An increase in turnover of bike sales of 16% in particular thanks to a big growth in e-bike market by the brands Haibike, Winora and Ghost. In volume, sales grew by a big 12%. The increase comes mostly from the skyrocketing sale of e-MTBs. The vast and rapidly growing popularity of such models even surprised the Accell Board and staff.” The good news, therefore, didn't necessarily cause any shocks but it will still lead to increased confidence in the market.

It seems as though the German public is split in their decision whether to buy in from abroad or domestically as both markets experienced increases over the past twelve months. A small growth of 2% was seen in sales to German consumers and a double-digit growth was seen in import domestic deliveries.

Where has the increase in e-bike sales come from? - It is believed that the customer base of such products has reduced in average age and the e-bike is now attracting a more ‘sporty’ crowd. It is also important to note that bikes produced in Germany are starting to find a wider audience both within their home country and abroad; e-bike production rose by 50,000 in 2015 to just over 300,000. Exports increased by a whopping 37% to the new figure of 140,000 units.

The majority of German imports came from other European countries; this figure is thought to be just short of two-thirds. One-third of imports were from Asia with around 2% unspecified. When it comes to exports, four in every five bikes went to the EU-28 countries with just 4% leaving Europe.

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