BRUSSELS. Bianchi, Atala, Legnano. These are just some of the great trademarks of made in Italy and quality bicycles. Italian excellence continues to drive an expanding market, but the country system begins to stop pedaling at full speed and begins to lag behind. Italy loses the primacy and the top of the classification, which sees it no longer first for the production of the two wheels so loved and much requested.
Eurostat data referring to 2021 indicate an increase in production throughout the EU, against an increase in demand for traditional and electric models that is not satisfied by the twelve-star offer. The EU had to go abroad, especially to Asian markets (Cambodia, Taiwan, China). About 433 million euros in sales abroad, and just over a billion euros in purchases from abroad. Europe lost over 500 million euros on the classic bike alone.
But this is not the figure that leaps to the eye. Consulting the Eurostat database, it emerges that Italy, up to and including 2018, was the first European Union producer of bicycles. Three years later it is the third, pressed by the expansion of German companies. It is true that the EU has experienced double-digit growth in production, + 11% compared to 2020. This “mini-boom” was also possible due to the tricular contribution. Of the 13.5 million new ecological two-wheelers built, 1.9 were built by national companies in the country. However, Portugal (2.9 million) and Romania (2.5 million) did better.
In 2015, Italy produced 4.7 million bicycles. The numbers for 2021 are more than halved, in comparison. Last year, for the first time since 2013, the maximum backward time horizon for which Eurostat data can be consulted, Italy dropped below two million bicycles produced. A slowdown that reflects a decline that began in 2015. Currently, the German industry in the sector produces something like 400 thousand fewer models. To overtake Portugal and Romania is also added the assault of Germany. Italy risks having to settle for the well-known saying “few, but good”. In the end, the made in Italy brands resist. But it is little consolation.