Market: The German Bicycle Industry Association (ZIV) recently published the figures for the German bicycle market for 2016. It was a difficult 12 months for the industry, mainly because of the bad weather in the first half of the year. The fact that sales nevertheless rose slightly was mainly due to the ongoing e-bike trend. Despite this small setback, the association looks positively to the future.
2016 was a complicated bike year for the German bike industry. With just over 4 million bicycles and e-bikes sold, sales were 6,9% below the (very strong) previous year. Above all, the really bad weather in the first half of the year caused problems for bicycle dealers and manufacturers alike. Spring was riddled with storms, cool temperatures and constant rain showers - it is only too understandable that only a few people really wanted to get a new bike. A beautiful (late) summer followed and sales picked up, but the deficit from the first half of the year could not be fully offset.
The fact that despite fewer bicycles sold, sales increased by 7% to 2,6 billion is due to the ongoing e-bike boom. 605.000 pedelecs sold in 2016 mean an increase of 13% compared to the previous year. The market share of e-bikes in Germany is now 15% – and the trend is rising. In the long term, the ZIV expects up to 30%. For the first time, e-bike-specific figures were also collected depending on the bicycle category. At around 45%, around half of the e-bikes sold are city and urban bikes, 35% are trekking bikes, 15% are MTBs and cargo bikes also make up a considerable share at 2,5%. Overall, the ZIV estimates that there are now around 3 million e-bikes on Germany's roads.
In hardly any other country in the world are bicycles with electric motors as popular as in Germany. This is also due to the great know-how of the manufacturers based here, such as Bosch or Brose for the drives and Haibike, Corratec or Cube for the complete bikes. 233.000 e-bikes 'Made in Germany' were exported to other countries in 2016 - that's an increase of 66%(!) compared to the previous year.
Despite the small setback in 2016, the ZIV assumes that the overall upward trend in the bicycle market will continue and looks positively to the future: “2016 was a difficult year for the German bicycle industry. The industry is heavily dependent on the weather conditions during the cycling season, and unfortunately these were extremely unfavorable in the first half of the year. Fortunately, a lot of ground was made up for in the second half of the year, so that the industry can still be satisfied overall. We must not forget that the years 1 and 2014 were excellent for the industry and are therefore compared at a high level. We are very confident about the future." says Siegfried Neuberger, the managing director of the ZIV.