CIE and partners launch first-ever European Cargo Bike Industry Survey

A call has been launched this week for all companies making or supplying cargo-bikes for delivery and consumer use to complete a research study into the European market. The first-ever European Cargo Bike Industry Survey is being conducted by Cycling Industries Europe, the European Cycle Logistics Federation (ECLF), cargobike.jetzt and Cracow University of Technology, as part of the CityChangerCargoBike project (CCCB). The survey addresses brands, dealers and distributors of cargo bikes as well as suppliers and providers of cargo bike specific products and services.

The European Cargo Bike Industry Survey is part of CCCB’s mission to fully exploit the potential of cargo bikes as a sustainable mobility option, to enable a faster, more cost-effective and larger-scale deployment of them in urban areas. Cargo bikes and especially electrically assisted cargo bikes have been hailed as one of the cycling sector’s growth stories in recent years. Moving out of their traditional base in Denmark and the Netherlands there has been very significant growth in many other countries. And the bigger companies have not been slow to follow up the trend with Bosch producing dedicated e-cargo dive units while PON and Accell Group have both made strategic acquisitions in the segment. Research on the market potential has suggested that cycling can replace up to 50% of light goods movements in and around cities in Europe, which led Cycling Industries Europe to forecast a market potential of up to 2 million units per year by 2030.

However, one of the missing pieces of data from this success story is a true measure of the actual number of units being sold today. German Industry Association ZIV included cargo bikes as a category in its annual statistics for 2019 and found a share of around 4%, while it is believed cargo bikes make up about 6% of the current bike fleet in Copenhagen. But to what extent are these figures matched internationally? The survey aims to remedy this clear lack of data on the size and growth of the European cargo bike market. Such data is needed to further increase investment by companies and political attention by national governments and the EU. Especially as the cargo bike industry is also affected by the Coronavirus crisis and should benefit from stimulus packages.

The survey aims for complete market coverage so it includes any bicycles with a higher than usual total maximum weight, specifically constructed for the private or commercial transport of goods or people. This includes postal bikes and rikshaws and extends the scope of the research to the European Union plus UK, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and the Balkan region. It contains three parts; two related to market size (i.e.: sales numbers of cargo bikes and the industry’s turnover) and one related to coronavirus impact.

Having the University as a partner means the research can be independently validated and means complete anonymity between brands. As the CCCB research partner Cracow University of Technology’s team led by Professor Vitalii Naumov (Department of Transportation Systems) will provide aggregated data for analysis and reporting.

For more information and to participate, click here. The deadline for answers is Monday 18 May 2020 at 14:00 CET. Survey results will be published with a media release and on http://cccb.fgm.at/market-size shortly after closing of the survey on 18 May 2020.