Even before and during the Corona lockdown, the use of bicycles and e-bikes in commuter, everyday and leisure traffic increased significantly. The trend has now manifested itself in markedly rising e-bike sales figures. An extrapolation by the Swiss Expert Centre for Bicycle and E-Bike has shown that an increase of up to 25 percent can be expected in the current year.
In the past two years, the bicycle industry has already enjoyed stable sales growth thanks to the e-bike and continuing good weather. In 2018 alone, the e-bike market grew by a whopping 27 per cent to 111661 units, which was mainly due to the exploding demand for e-mountainbikes. In 2019, sales of e-MTBs grew again in line with the overall e-bike market, which increased by 19 per cent to a new record of 133033 units. In 2020, sales growth could again be as high as in 2018.
A survey of the members of the Swiss bicycle manufacturers and importers association Velosuisse supports the data of the Customs Directorate, which has recorded significant growth in both e-bike imports and exports in the period from July 2019 to June 2020. E-bike imports increased by 23.6 per cent, which, extrapolated, corresponds to about 165000 electric bicycles. E-bike exports also increased significantly by almost 19 percent and are expected to exceed 60,000 pedelecs in 2020.
The growth in e-mobility was partly at the expense of normal bicycles. In terms of unit sales, however, not to the full extent, indicating a slightly growing overall bicycle market (+2.2 percent). Compared to previous years, the consistently high demand for bicycles is exceptional, even in changeable weather conditions, which has become apparent from time to time this summer. In the past, cool and rainy weather immediately led to declining interest in bicycles. This year this is not the case. Demand remains high - and so does the strain on bicycle factories and workshops, which continue to operate in accordance with the guidelines of the Federal Office of Public Health with regard to distance and hygiene rules. Due to space constraints, it is therefore not possible to increase the workforce everywhere at will, which can result in untypically long waiting times and delivery times. It is therefore advisable to plan the purchase of a new bicycle or e-bike well in advance.