New report suggests UK bike sales have fallen to a new low.
Posted on in Business News , Cycles News
A new report on the state of the UK cycle industry suggests that bike sales have fallen once again, months after it was reported that they had fallen to a 20-year low in 2022.
The Bicycle Association's mid-year report for the first half of 2023 suggest that mechanical bike sales have fallen by 8% and e-bike sales by 12%. The total market value of the cycle industry has dropped by 8% compared with the same period last year.
The numbers, which come from a low start point, see bike sales in the UK dropping to their lowest level in two decades, 27% below pre-Covid levels as the cost-of-living crisis impacts.
Mechanical bike sales in the first six months of 2023 were down a third on the same period in 2019, while the UK cycling market's value is projected to fall to £1.57 billion for 2023, compared with £1.9 billion in 2019.
E-bike sales particularly were mentioned as being disappointingly low. While it was expected the e-bike market was one that could continue to grow, despite the challenging context, e-bike sales have dropped by 12%, with e-mountain bikes the only category in the e-bike market that has seen sales up on the same period in 2022.
The report notes that e-bike sales have fallen further behind European sales, with consumers on the continent embracing them faster than here in the UK.
