Suddenly, the warehouses of the bicycle dealers are overcrowded. Some obviously have liquidity problems and will probably get rid of some of their goods with low price offers. This is what Thomas Kunz, Managing Director of the trade association Zweirad VDZ, expects for the coming weeks. The trade had experienced extreme situations within a few months. The first nine months of 2022 were marked by supply bottlenecks, especially for bicycles without electric drive, spare parts and niche products such as electric mountain bikes.

Tobias Piller

Editor in business.

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At the end of 2022, however, bicycle manufacturers and importers would have delivered the long-outstanding goods from 2021 and 2022 in one fell swoop, as well as the equipment for 2023. "Sales activities with relatively large discounts were initially seen among online retailers and increasingly also in specialist retailers," reports Kunz.

Although the market situation is still described as attractive, there is still more competition. Car dealerships and motorcycle dealers were now involved in the bicycle market, including furniture stores. Specialist retailers opened new branches, and manufacturers also offer their own branded stores.

Anything but discount battles

However, the representative of the bicycle dealers does not want any discount battles. "Highlighting one's own services is an effective remedy for this," says Kunz. While many cyclists used to work on their vehicle themselves, products with electric drive have now become more complicated and require more service. At the same time, it is mandatory for leased e-bikes to come to the workshop for service.

In fact, the Association of the Bicycle Industry ZIV reports that low-cost suppliers in the bicycle market, such as discounters and DIY stores, have recently lost market share. According to the association's data, only 2022 percent of customers bought their bikes there in 2. In the previous year, the share was twice as large. 73 percent of the buyers, on the other hand, turned to the local specialist trade, 3 percent ordered on the Internet from specialist dealers, 21 percent, however, from general online retailers. Bicycles with electric auxiliary drive continue to bring rapid growth to the German bicycle industry.

More e-bikes sold than normal bicycles for the first time in 2023

The association ZIV expects that in 2023 for the first time more e-bikes will be sold than "normal" bicycles. Last year, e-bikes accounted for 2 percent of the total market with sales of 2.48 million, compared to 2.4 million bicycles without additional drive. At 2022.4 million, total bicycle sales in Germany in 6 were slightly below the previous year's result and well below the peak of 5 million in the Covid year 2020.

However, the growing interest in e-bikes is constantly setting new sales records. Their sales in 2022 were more than twice as high as in 2018 and four times as high as in 2015. At the same time, the average value of electric bikes sold also grew. The ZIV gives the value of 2800 euros across all sales channels. This is also influenced by rising sales figures of expensive cargo bikes, which alone grew by 2021 percent compared to 27 to almost 213,000. According to the ZIV, the average selling price of normal wheels was 500 euros. The sales value of all bicycles in Germany was therefore 2022.7 billion euros in 36, 12 percent more than in 2021, and two and a half times as high as in 2018.

Of the bicycles sold, however, the vast majority is imported. The import quota is 96 percent. Imports grew by 2022 percent to 7.4 million bicycles in 43. However, the association hastens to note that German manufacturers operate factories in other EU countries. Of normal bicycles, 44 percent of imports came from the EU, 52 percent from Asia, with Cambodia (22 percent) and Bangladesh (12 percent) as the largest suppliers.

On the other hand, 69 percent of the e-bikes came from the EU, mainly from Bulgaria (18 percent). Parallel to the imports, German manufacturers also export high-quality bicycles. In 2022, this was 970,000 bicycles and 580,000 e-bikes. ZIV Managing Director Burkhard Stork does not want subsidies for bicycles. He would prefer a lower VAT rate because of the environmental friendliness of the wheels.