Total sales of bicycles and electric bicycles have skyrocketed by 7.4% in Europe in 2022 compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching a value of 21,200 million euros, according to the ‘European Report on the Sector of the Bicycle’, published by Confebi.
Specifically, the European bicycle industry continued its growth curve with an increase in turnover and investments, setting record levels of electric bicycle sales and production, but also with a drop in sales of conventional bicycles in 2022.
Along these lines, in 2022 there was “a considerable slowdown in bicycle sales at the European level”, explained Confebi, who stressed that from the 17.1 million units sold in 2021 they went to 14.7 million units in 2022.
However, the sector continued to increase the demand for electric bicycles, which exceeded 5.5 million units sold in 2022.
Regarding the production figures for bicycles and electric bicycles, in 2022 15.2 million bicycles were manufactured in Europe, of which 5.4 million were electric bicycles.
As for the production of bicycle parts and accessories, there was a “substantial” increase in 2022, as explained by Confebi, reaching a value of more than 4.8 billion euros, compared to 3.6 billion euros in 2021.
In the previous year, the industry’s investments reached 2,000 million euros, 14% more compared to the 1,750 million euros of investments in 2021.
Direct jobs in the manufacturing industry experienced a 3% increase from 2021 to over 89,000 in 2022, bringing the total of direct and indirect jobs in Europe to around 180,000, and growth of 5% in the number of companies.
In line with European data, after two record years in which more than 1.5 million bicycles were sold annually, the value of bicycle sales in Spain in 2022 fell by 6% compared to 2021 and the sale of bicycles, in units, decreased by 13.59%.
