Falling production, falling sales: bicycle manufacturers have to cope with a shrinking market. Business with normal bicycles in particular has collapsed.
German bicycle manufacturers are trying to appeal to more and more customer groups with increasingly differentiated bicycles. At the Eurobike trade fair in Frankfurt am Main, 1,200 bicycles are on display, from conventional folding bicycles to half-cars. These are not cheap mass-produced items from the Far East, but expensive bicycles that are rarely available for less than 1,000 euros. Initially, only trade visitors are allowed, but next Saturday and Sunday, Eurobike will be open to the public.
The exhibitors' advertising shows young and middle-aged drivers, who are consistently slim and expensively dressed. Large manufacturers have created their own lifestyle brands for these urban and affluent customers.
At the same time, numerous manufacturers offer bikes for completely different customer groups. In rural areas, older people are enthusiastic about riding electric bikes that cost several thousand euros. The major manufacturer Kalkhoff offers – as the Eurobike press material puts it – the “SUV among e-bikes”, which is also suitable for “strongly built riders”. Heavier people also sit comfortably on the three-wheelers from HP Velotechnik, which are also suitable for families who are travelling with all their belongings.
Difficult years for manufacturers and retailers
For years, sales and production, especially of increasingly expensive e-bikes, have been increasing. But two years ago, that stopped. Burkhard Stork, managing director of the Bicycle Industry Association, is trying to keep the mood up. But production and sales have also fallen again in the first four months of the current year.
The market for normal bikes has been particularly hard hit, while e-bike business is still fairly stable. Dealers' warehouses are still full. With almost one and a half million bikes, the inventory is “high, but not catastrophically high,” says Stork.
Industry and company spokespeople deny that market saturation could have been reached after the multi-year boom in e-bikes and cargo bikes. Inflation and bad weather are to blame for the slowdown in sales. The industry is characterized by many small and medium-sized manufacturers and very few large companies.
There is talk of difficult years. But that does not mean that producers are struggling to make ends meet. They have had years of exceptionally good profits. The last published balance sheets still relate to the boom year of 2022 and show that double-digit returns on sales were not unusual.
Questions about the Road safety
Another topic is safety. “Over 40 percent of people feel unsafe on their bikes,” says Wasilis von Rauch, managing director of the industry association “Zukunft Fahrrad.” But when safety is discussed at Eurobike, it is not about training, safety concepts or the stable construction of trailers for children. “Safety” is mentioned almost exclusively in connection with expensive accessories: helmets with lights at the front and back or cameras that show the traffic behind.
A manufacturer of closed tricycles over a meter wide with a large cargo space advertises: “I don't need a driver's license, I don't need a helmet.” The trade fair management is advertising a children's bike with an automatic transmission. It shifts gears automatically at higher speeds, allowing an even faster ride because “the little riders don't have to concentrate on shifting gears.”
Many injured in accidents involving e-bikes
Industry spokespeople have said nothing about the fact that more and more people are having accidents with e-bikes. After a clear warning from the Federal Statistical Office two years ago, the official figures for 2023 also show that the number of people injured on e-bikes has risen to 23,500.
Inexperienced riders often have trouble handling the relatively fast e-bikes and are sometimes tempted to use them on busy country roads. At least the number of e-bike riders killed has fallen, but it is still high.
Roman Warschauer, HR, tagesschau, 03.07.2024 09:24 a.m.