BAD SODEN, Germany – Last Friday, as part of the ‘MetroMobile’ conference in Berlin, Siegfried Neuberger (photo) General Manager the German industry organization Zweirad Industrie Verband (ZIV) announced the 2010 statistics on the German bicycle market. Last year the total number of bicycles sold in Germany decreased to 4.01 million units compared to 2009, while the average retail sales price increased 3% to € 460.

“The rising turnover in the bicycle industry is a direct result of the growing importance of the electric bike”, said Siegfried Neuberger. “In 2010 units wise the market for e-bikes grew even more than in previous years. A total number of 200,000 e-bikes were sold and that is 50,000 more than in 2009. I expect that this segment will become even more important for our industry in the years to come. Currently about 5% of all bicycles sold in Germany are e-bikes. This figure will grow to 10-15% in 2018 resulting in a volume between 400,000-600,000 units annually.”

For 2011 the ZIV expects a market volume of 300,000 electric bicycles. ZIV’s 2011 forecast for the complete market including all segments is also positive. “In traffic bicycle participation has been growing for some years now”, said Neuberger. “In cities like Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Bremen and Dresden more than 15% of all trips is nowadays done by bike and this figure is growing.”