The bicycle market in the first half of 2023: positive overall

In the run-up to the world’s leading trade fair, Eurobike 2023, the ZIV presented market data for the German bicycle industry for the first five months of 2023. Foreign trade has developed positively, with declines but also increases in sales and production. Retail sales also picked up tremendously in May after the weather improved.

«In view of the ongoing war in Europe, with inflation, a general reluctance to buy and very bad weather, we expected the market to be gloomy in the first few months of 2023,» says the ZIV’s CEO Burkhard Stork. «It is therefore all the more pleasing that the anticipated decline in bicycle sales, and especially e-bikes, was less severe throughout Germany from January to May compared to the strong results in the same period last year, and that exports were able to increase considerably in the first quarter.»

Rarely has an outlook for the full year been as difficult as it was for the current year. «We confer closely with businesses and are currently seeing very heterogeneous situations, sales figures and expectations,» says Burkhard Stork. «There’s a general consensus that quality and innovation ‘Made in Germany’ will remain a stable strong driver, especially in the e-bike market, and that the bicycle and e-bike market will develop very well in the medium and long term,» emphasises Stork. The current year is likely to remain challenging for the bicycle industry nonetheless.

The ZIV forecasts sales of around 2 million e-bikes in 2023. That amounts to about 10% less than in the 2022 peak year when 2.2 million units were sold.

Every year, the ZIV publishes the economic figures for the German bicycle industry – exclusively for the industry: the ZIV market data is the central source for surveys, monitoring and analyses of developments within the industry and also provides outlooks on trends in the sector and the future of the market.