With record-level sales each year and double-digit annual growth in main markets, there’s no doubt that e-bikes are making an impact, but with such enormous growth in such a short period, it begs the question — are e-bikes the future, or are they just a fad?
Is Electric The Future of Transportation?
The future of ebikes arguably comes down to whether electric transportation is the future altogether. There are a number of trends that confirm this. For example, the power sector as a whole is getting cleaner and greener every year, and we’re seeing policies, like fuel standards and electric tax breaks, that are working to push automakers towards electric and hybrid models. The results of this are easy to spot. Take, for another example, General Motors announced they are working towards going all-electric by 2023. If one of the biggest car companies in the world is investing in an electric future, then perhaps that’s our answer.
But can we base the future of e-bikes on the success of the electric industry as a whole or are they just a fad in the booming electric industry? Perhaps the biggest indicator of this is their adoption outside of the biking industry. With heavy-hitting automakers like Porsche, Audi, and Ford investing in e-bikes, it’s safe to assume e-bikes are no longer niche. They are starting to be considered a real option for transportation in an economy that’s drifting away from gas to a sustainable future.
The End of the Driving Boom
Car sales have been slumping for years now. They’re predicting that in 10 years more than half of new vehicle production will be electric. Newer generations are desperate to find alternative methods to get around that don’t involve pollution, traffic, or ridiculous gas prices, and it’s officially bringing the driving boom to an end.
In fact, e-bikes are being called the most rapidly growing alternative to gas vehicles in transportation history, selling around 150 million since 2003, and becoming steadily more popular over the past years.
Cities like Paris, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam are perfect examples of cities that are actively making strides away from cars and towards bikes. Both conventional and electric bikes. For example, Amsterdam has more bikes than cars, and in Copenhagen, almost 40 percent of adults ride a bike to work. However, Paris is perhaps the best example of this shift. They’ve been slowly transitioning away from cars by implementing more bike-sharing stations. In fact, they are even in the midst of building the first-ever highway exclusive to bikes.
Although already the leading electric vehicle globally, it’s predicted that by 2024 the global e-bike market will rise by up to 38 percent. With increasing urbanization and the global desire to move away from fuel vehicles, e-bikes are well-positioned for continued growth. Today, the leading market is China, followed by Europe.
China has been an early adopter of e-bikes, leading global sales and manufacturing. Close behind China, is Europe. Their sales speak for themselves, with some countries having double-digit growth for the past couple of years. However, the biggest insight into their vision for electric transportation is their dedication to implementing e-bike sharing stations across major cities.
The United States and Canada are to be the next big market for e-bikes, with sales continuously going up for nearly a decade. In fact, North American sales are to triple in 2018, with a compound annual growth rate of 20 percent.
Fad or Future?
It’s clear that the global state of transportation is changing. The driving bubble has burst, and people are eager to find alternative, clean and sustainable ways to get travel. With this global shift in transport and travel and such enormous growth predictions globally, it’s safe to assume that e-bikes are here to stay, and perhaps the future of transportation.
