E-Bike Sales in Germany Beats Expectations

FRIEDRICHSHAFEN, Germany – E-Bikes are doing much better than expected in Europe’s biggest bicycle market. This year’s sales in Germany are beating all expectations. This was announced by the country’s bike industry association ZIV at this morning’s press conference which officially kicked off the 2010 Eurobike show.

After a 2009 sales volume of 160,000 units, the ‘Zweirad-Industrie-Verband’ (ZIV) earlier pronounced that for 2010 sales would rise to about 180,000 e-Bikes. After seeing the results for the first half of 2010, ZIV’s managing director Siegfried Neuberger said at this morning’s press conference that prognoses are raised to 200,000 e-Bikes sold in Germany at the end of the year.

Comparing the 200,000 e-Bikes to be sold this year in Germany with the 160,000 in 2009, would tally up to a market growth of 40%! This figure not only beats all expectations, but also sales in every other sector on Germany’s bike market.

The overall picture of that market during the first half of 2010 is that of flat sales. A total of about 2.7 million bikes were delivered to dealers; down 0.2% of the total for the first half of 2009. Bike production stayed at the same level as in the first six months of 2009 while the same was for bike imports.