When an industry reports growth of 40 percent, it usually announces this with trumpets and trumpets. The bicycle industry, on the other hand, is practising analytical euphoria. The fact is, however, that 2020 was the most successful year in the history of the Swiss bicycle market. Over half a million new bikes were sold. That's never happened before. And that doesn't even include the second-hand market.

Mountain bikes make up the majority

Slightly more than 200,000 new mountain bikes were sold in Switzerland in 2020, 57,000 more than in the previous year. All other bicycle segments also saw a similar increase, which is why the share of mountain bikes within the industry as a whole remained unchanged. For more than a decade, this has been around 40 percent. Incidentally, everyday bikes achieve the same share, while racing bikes account for just 5 percent of the statistics.

Upswing of e-mountain bikes halted

E-bikes, which are reported separately in Velosuisse's industry statistics, have been the big topic in recent years. In mountain biking, it has been observed in recent years that the growth of e-mountain bikes has been at the expense of the non-motorized versions. In other words, the total number of mountain bikes sold rose only slightly, but the proportion of e-mountain bikes increased significantly. This trend came to a halt in 2020 and the proportion of motorized mountain bikes has (temporarily) leveled off at one third. This in turn means that despite the hype surrounding e-bikes, the majority of mountain bike sales are still motorless. 130,000 "organic mountain bikes" were sold in 2020. This compares to just 72,000 e-mountainbikes.

The figures will stabilize

The year 2020 will go down in history. Because of the pandemic and in the bicycle industry because of the unique growth spurt. Experts expect the trend to continue for the time being. Many willing buyers could not be served last season because all bike manufacturers ran out of stock. These potential buyers will now follow suit, while at the same time the trend towards cycling remains unbroken. However, the extreme growth rates seen in 2020 are not to be expected. Sales figures are expected to stabilize over the next two years - but at a much higher level than before the coronavirus pandemic. The year 2020 was therefore not the start of unlimited growth, but rather a temporary turbo boost.

Contribution SRF on the topic: