Swiss E-Bike Records a Steady Increase in Sales

From the recent data released by the Swiss bicycle industry association VeloSuisse, it was observed that the sales of e-bikes and bicycles in Switzerland for the year 2017 were impressive. The data revealed that there was a thriving market for the domestic importers and the wholesalers who ran specialty stores where these products were sold. An estimated 338,000 bikes were reported to have been sold; this marked a 42% increase when compared to the sales figures reported for the previous year.

E-Bikes

As expected, the e-bikes were the most demanded products with a rise in demand by 14.1% between 2015 and 2016. For the past year, the increase was even more significant, at 16.3%; it was a new sales record in the markets with product sales reaching almost 90,000 units. From these sales figures, it can be interpreted that there is a steady increase in the number of bicycles with the electric auxiliary drive in Switzerland.

The sales of e-mountain bikes have also soared over the past years. Currently, the sales figures indicate a 38.3% rise from the records for the past year, which translates to a sale of over 29,000 units of the e-mountain bikes.

It was also pointed out in the reports from VeloSuisse that e-bike sales were gaining momentum in the niche market with over 400 cargo e-bikes sold last year. It is a welcome development because the cargo bikes are expected to be the substitute for cars in the future. The increasing demand for these bikes is no unconnected to the improvement in handling features, design, and innovation used to improve the cargo bikes.

Traditional bikes

The sports sector is mostly responsible for the sale of the traditional bikes which come with mudguards, luggage carriers, and no lights. The sales figures have appreciated which was a surprise considering the unfortunate decline over the years. The unexpected growth is attributed to the production of bikes for children and younger adults which include bikes with wheel sizes measuring between 20 to 24 inches and the freestyle bikes. According to VeloSuisse, the increase in sales was put at 22.7%. However, there was a decline in the MTB sector where the sales of the 26 inch and 27.5-inch bikes dropped by 7% and 2.3% respectively, while the bikes with 29-inch wheels witnessed a slight increase by 3.9%. There was no significant change in the sale records for the road racing bikes.