E-bikes drive Dutch bike sales up after years in decline
Posted on in Cycles News
Bikes sales in the Netherlands are up after years of decline, figures from Dutch industry association Rai Vereniging in cooperation with dealer association BOVAG show.
The Dutch bicycle market grew by 3.2% in 2017, thanks mainly to the growing popularity of e-bikes.
The total number of bicycles sold in the Netherlands last year was 957,000; up 3% from the 2016 total. E-bikes generated the largest part of this growth, with almost 1 in 3 bikes sold now an e-bike. In 2017 the number of e-bikes sold increased 8.7% to 294,000 units.
According to the report, more than half of the Netherlands total bike market value of 976 million euro is now generated from e-bike sales.
The growing sales of electric bicycles are mainly at the expense of the hybrid and the traditional bikes, although the traditional bike with a market share of 42 percent (399,000 copies) is still the most popular. The average amount spent on a new bike in 2017 was €10 up on the previous year at €1,020. Fast pedelecs with speeds of up to 45 kph were also more popular than last year, with sales up by almost 1,000 to 4,572.