In Holland One out of Eight Bikes Is Electric

AMSTERDAM, the Netherlands – Policymakers often use the Dutch market as an example on how rapidly e-Bike sales can develop. In the Netherlands electric bikes have gained a strong foothold. Between 2006 and 2009 the market quadrupled from 40,000 units to 153,000 last year.

This means one out of every eight bicycles sold in the Netherlands is now an e-Bike which is on average three times more expensive than a regular bicycle. These figures a based on a market survey held by GfK Marketing Services Benelux and published by the Dutch industry organization RAI Vereniging.

In 2009 the total number of bikes sold dropped below the regular 1.3 million mark as a result of the economic situation. However, the money wise sales increased by 2.6% in 2009 to € 930 million as a result of the high average prices for e-Bikes.

Thanks to the growing popularity 2009 electric bike sales accounted for one third of the turnover of the whole bike sector in the Netherlands, or 25% more related to 2008. That’s what you might call booming business!

The popularity of the e-Bike comes at the expense of the category City bikes which saw a sales decline of 6% last year. Despite that this segment remains the largest in the Netherlands with a market share of 49% or 628,000 units last year. The Hybrid or Trekking segment turned out stable with 16% or 205,000 units. The number of sold kids bikes declined by 6% to 172,000 units.