Following a slight drop in 2021, the Belgian bicycle market shifted up a gear last year with an increase of 111,000 units sold.
Supply problems in 2021 resulted in only 585,000 bicycles being sold in Belgium, but last year, the market grew by 19%. A total of 695,871 units were sold, which marks an increase of 110,958 vehicles in just one year, mobility federation Traxio reported on Tuesday.
"The Belgian bicycle market made a nice spurt in 2022 now that the pandemic problems are largely behind us," said Traxio spokesperson Filip Rylant. "There are now plenty of bicycles available again and we see that both in sales and in replenished stocks, explaining the huge increase of 19% to almost 700,000 units."
The biggest growth was recorded among electric bicycles, of which 101,786 more were sold, an increase of almost 50% compared to 2021. Meanwhile, mechanical bicycles recorded an increase of just 2.6%.
"As a result, we see an important market shift: In just four years, the market share has evolved from one-third to almost half electric bikes (47.2%)," Rylant said.
Electric bikes were mainly sold in bike shops, where the e-bike share now stands at 53%. Those bike shops saw their market share grow sharply to 64.3%.
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Among electric bikes, more and more are driven by hub gears, which require less maintenance.
"Ease of maintenance and cleanliness (no more chain grease flying around and dirty hands) contribute to its success, and manufacturers are increasingly betting on hub gears, increasing both supply and reliability," Rylant said. "Incidentally, this fits the trend of increasingly expensive bikes.
Electrically assisted sport bikes are also growing in popularity, as are cargo bikes and folding bikes. Meanwhile, the number of children's bikes sold still decreased last year, as this specific sector is still suffering from production problems.
