ROME – By 2025, half of the bicycles that will be sold in Europe will be electric. And the main markets will be Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria and Switzerland.
The forecast is by Claus Fleischer, CEO of Bosch eBike Systems, one of the largest suppliers of electric bike components in the region. According to Conebi, the Confederation of the European bicycle industry, last year the E-bike market in the Old Continent had already reached a fifth of total sales, totaling 4.5 million units, 34% more than in 2019. While the value of bicycle parts and accessories produced in Europe reached 3 billion euros in 2020, and is expected to double by 2025.
In fact, from Asian countries like Taiwan, China and Vietnam, bicycle supply chains are shifting to Europe. With the consequence that – Fleischer specified – about 80% of the electric bicycles sold in Europe last year were produced on the continent. The CEO of Bosch eBike Systems highlighted how the shortage of electronic components, which has affected the production of bicycles globally, has not yet stopped production in Europe, although Fleischer does not exclude that it could have an impact on the production of these bicycles. ‘year.
According to the head of the Bosch division, after an annual increase of more than 40 percent in many European countries in 2020, annual growth rates in e-bike sales will return to pre-pandemic levels of 20-25 percent. But the electric bike craze is not just a European phenomenon. Even in the United States, supporters of E-bikes are growing exponentially. In 2020, 600,000 e-bikes were sold in the US, at a sales rate of approximately one every 52 seconds.
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