Cargo bike industry projects over 65% growth in 2021

An annual survey of the cargo bike market’s leading labels taken as part of the second annual City Changer Cargo Bike project has delivered the verdict that the sales growth rate is projected to be 65.9% ahead in 2021.

Building on last year’s study, where the growth rate came out at 38.4%, the 38 European brands surveyed gave some extra depth on the trajectory of the market, warning only that the supply of component parts stood in the way of further progress.

In 2020 the research findings closely aligned with tracked ZIV market data that illustrated a 40% growth in the cargo bike segment in Germany, tallying over 100,000 sales and 2% market share. The forecasts, generated solely from the 38 businesses studied, are based on trade completed up to April of this year. Of those labels the combined forecast sits at 75,843 units this year (without accounting for those that did not participate).

Those surveyed were asked to paint a picture of where the business is making the fastest gains and Belgium emerged as a brand favourite, despite none of the labels asked stemming from the country. It was said that Belgium’s rise as a capital of cargo stemmed from effective funding programmes for electric bikes and bike-friendly infrastructure provision.

Germany also ranked highly and sales were up 35% here in 2020. 14 German manufacturers made up the survey pool.

The fact that schemes promoting electric assistance ranked strongly for driving sales growth is no surprise; 92% of cargo bike units sold within Europe in 2020 carried a motor. Given the current legal frameworks in Europe the vast majority were equipped as a standard pedelec capable of no more assistance than 15.5mph.

The City Changer Cargo Bike Project is organised by Cargobike.jetzt, Cycling Industries Europe, the ECF, The European Cycle Logistics Federation and run alongside Krakow University of Technology.