2022 Another Record Year for Bicycles and E-Bikes in Germany

There are now roughly the same number of bicycles as people in Germany, and e-bikes may overtake conventional bicycles in terms of new production and sales. Those are two of the main insights of the German bicycle industry organization ZIV’s annual report on the sector.

There were a record 82.8 million bicycles on the streets in 2022, an increase of two million over 2021. The number of bicycles has risen 16.6 percent over the past decade. Turnover in 2022 also set a new record of EUR 7.36 billion, up 12 percent year on year and some 400 percent over the last decade.

Just under ten million of these vehicles were e-bikes, and roughly twice as many e-bikes (1.7 million) as conventional bicycles (0.9 million) were produced last year. Motorized cargo bikes were one particularly robust niche for growth. IT’s a sign of the times.

“We assume that in the course of this year, for the first time, more e-bikes will be sold than non-motorized bicycles,” the head of ZIV, Burkhard Stork, said when presenting the study.