UK sees 47% increase in e-Bike searches in 2020

Recent data sourced by Halfords from Google’s Keyword Planner showed promising growth for several bike categories, e-Bikes being the highest with 31% year-on-year growth.

The research revealed that searches for bikes across Europe have increased by half a million, with 1.3 million Brits purchasing bikes during the recent Covid-19 lockdown. However, e-Bikes continue to lead the way.

This comes after a 13,412 person EU-wide study conducted by YouGov on behalf of Shimano found that a quarter of Europeans intend to use an e-Bike this year.

With public transport’s capacity decreasing dramatically during the pandemic, many have had to find alternative means of travel and have been encouraged to cycle to work through C2W schemes and infrastructure plans for cyclists.

The data arguably drives questions on whether the commuter cyclist is the driving force behind the growth of the bike market.  The data indicated that Italy is at the forefront of electric bike interest – with searches for ‘electric bikes’ in 2020 increasing by 48% compared to the previous year.

How does the UK compare to Italy, though? While we can’t quite claim first place, the UK has seen a 47% increase in e-Bike searches year-on-year.

Further data can be viewed at: https://blog.halfords.com/google-trends-cycling-report/

The last few months have seen several locations adding e-Bikes to their bike share fleet such as Watford, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.