German bike market tough opening six months

Whether it is manufacturers or importers of bicycles and their components and accessories, the German bike market seemed a little slow in the first six months of 2016 and the figures showed this. At the very beginning of this year’s edition of Eurobike, there was a panel that discussed all the relevant figures and we soon found out that bike production stuttered when compared to last year and now sits at 1.6 million units.

When it comes to sales, bicycles and e-bikes together fell by around 5-8% to reach a final level of 2.7 million units. Representatives from ZIV, who presented the numbers, said that the nation really wasn't interested in bicycles until June came around. If we dig a little deeper, we see that imports of bikes fell by just under 1.5% and e-bikes took up a larger percentage of the import market. In fact, e-bikes are slowly becoming a challenger for the most popular type of bike everywhere. Both in imports and regular sales, e-bikes now have a higher percentage of the market than last year.

In terms of exports, this fell by around 7% and e-bikes took up a larger proportion of sales here too. For exports, ZIV blamed poor weather all around Europe for the declining sales. From June onwards, the association has said that they fully expect the market to pick up and for e-bike sales to grow by around 5% year-on-year. If this was to happen, it would break the 550,000 unit barrier. With this in mind, e-bikes are certainly providing Germany with a glimmer of hope in an otherwise slowing market.

Image Provided by; © Panama00 | Dreamstime.com - International Bicycle Exhibition VELOBIKE 2016 In Kiev, Ukraine Photo