Our conclusions on the development of the bicycle market
Ten years of sales have reshaped the German bicycle market: e-bikes now account for the majority, although their sales have recently declined. Non-motorised bicycles are losing ground significantly in the long term, but they do not constitute a uniform declining segment. Road bikes and, in particular, gravel bikes are gaining prominence in the sales mix and remain predominantly non-motorised. The decisive factors are therefore not only the type of drive system, but also the type of bicycle, its intended use and the development of the respective sub-market.
Ten years, two opposing trends
In 2016, for every e-bike sold in Germany, there were just under six non-motorised bicycles. By 2025, e-bikes will be in the lead: two million e-bikes will be sold compared with 1.8 million non-motorised bicycles. Hardly any other statistic illustrates the structural shift in the bicycle market as clearly as this reversal in the balance of power.
The VDZ market report, published in September 2026, documents this trend using data from the German Bicycle Industry Association (ZIV). According to the report, annual e-bike sales rose from 610,000 to two million units between 2016 and 2025. This represents an increase of around 228 per cent. Over the same period, sales of non-motorised bicycles fell from 3.45 million to 1.8 million units, a decline of just under 48 per cent.
The overall market in terms of units did not grow. Taken together, the two drive systems attracted around 4.06 million buyers in 2016, compared with 3.8 million in 2025. The bottom line is a decline of just over six per cent. The long-term shift is therefore primarily a shift within the market: significantly more electric bikes and considerably fewer non-assisted bikes. Accordingly, total turnover rose due to higher selling prices, at least compared with the pre-pandemic years.
The boom is accelerating change, but it will not sustain it in the long term
Electrification did not begin with the pandemic. Between 2016 and 2019 alone, e-bike sales rose from 610,000 to 1.4 million units. Their share of total sales thus doubled within three years to almost a third.
The next surge came in 2020: two million e-bikes and 3.1 million non-motorised bicycles combined to make a total of 5.1 million bicycles sold. This was the highest total sales figure in the series under review. The VDZ attributes this exceptional demand, amongst other things, to changes in leisure activities during the pandemic, a shift in consumer spending and favourable weather conditions.
After that, trends began to diverge. Whilst e-bike sales reached their highest level on record in 2022, at 2.2 million units, sales of non-motorised bicycles had already fallen significantly. In 2023, e-bikes exceeded the 50 per cent mark for the first time.
However, this does not mean that sales have continued to rise since then. In 2025, around 100,000 fewer e-bikes were sold than in 2024. The non-electric market remained stable at 1.8 million units. The dominance of electric bikes is therefore a reflection of a long-term structural shift, not evidence of an unbroken current boom.
Trekking, mountain and city bikes account for the bulk of sales
When classifying types of bicycle, it is important to note that the drive system and the intended use are two distinct characteristics. An e-mountain bike belongs to the mountain bike category just as much as a motorless MTB. The same applies to trekking bikes, cargo bikes and, nowadays, road bikes and gravel bikes as well.
The consolidated model group statistics for 2025 show where the volume lies. Trekking bikes account for 31.3 per cent, mountain bikes for 21.4 per cent and city or urban bikes for 16.6 per cent. Together, these three groups account for around 69 per cent of sales.
The VDZ survey also highlights the varying pace at which electrification is progressing. In the case of mountain bikes, there are around 741,000 electric models compared with just around 52,500 non-electric ones. For cargo bikes, 185,300 out of a total of 220,300 vehicles sold are electric, which is around 84 per cent. In these groups, therefore, the motor is no longer merely an optional extra. In other bicycle categories, however, it remains a marginal phenomenon – for example, in road bikes and gravel bikes.
Road bikes and gravel bikes: a greater proportion of the product range
Road bikes and gravel bikes will together account for 8.8 per cent of total unit sales in 2025. This means that this combined group is larger than the cargo bike segment and significantly larger than the market for children’s bikes. The trend over the past three years is particularly interesting: Road and gravel bikes together accounted for 4.5 per cent in 2023, 6.2 per cent in 2024 and finally 8.8 per cent in 2025 – and the trend is set to continue rising! Their reported share has thus almost doubled within two years.
It is also worth taking a closer look at the sports segment. The current breakdown shows gravel bikes accounting for 5.5 per cent and road bikes for 3.3 per cent. In terms of unit sales, gravel is therefore the larger of the two categories in the German new bike market. The classic road bike remains important, but no longer stands alone as the representative of the sports market with drop handlebars.
When it comes to racing handlebars, muscle power is still the norm
This unique position is even more evident when it comes to the drivetrain. Of the approximately 204,300 gravel bikes sold last year, 175,000 were sold without a motor, which equates to 86 per cent. For road bikes, this proportion is even higher: of a total of around 123,500 road bikes sold in Germany, 92 per cent were non-electric. So whilst e-models dominate the mountain bike market, they remain a small minority when it comes to road bikes and gravel bikes.
Taken together, the reported sales of non-motorised road bikes and gravel bikes total just under 289,000 units. This corresponds, roughly speaking, to one in every six non-motorised bicycles. The conclusion is clear: the decline in non-motorised bicycles does not affect every sub-segment equally. Anyone who interprets the overall decline as a general shift away from non-motorised bicycles is overlooking the growing importance of road bikes and gravel bikes in the sales mix.
For the retail sector, the new product mix is not just changing the display area. The VDZ highlights greater demands in terms of capital, advice, workshop equipment and staff training. A higher retail price initially brings in more turnover per bike, but not necessarily more profit.
Josh Welz
Editor-in-Chief