On 14th July Eurobike hosted the final conference of the City Changer Cargo Bike (CCCB) Project. Partners and stakeholders from the CCCB consortium gathered together at the biggest cycling industry event in Europe to show the results of this project and bring evidence about the potential of cargo bikes in urban mobility.
The conference programme included a “City Roundtable” where 10 of the CCCB partner cities discussed their most successful measures and recommendations, a “Business Panel” where leading companies shared how the business of logistics and last mile services can be transformed by cycling, and a “Policy Panel” made up of advocates, business associations and municipal institutions that looked at the lessons learned from CCCB and how they have become mainstream policy across Europe.
In the final keynote, Kevin Mayne, CEO of Cycling Industries Europe, shared the amazing results of the two most recent cargo bike industry surveys and demonstrated how 1 million new cargo bikes per year on our streets is already happening!
For the first time, two surveys were carried out: One for manufacturers, one for operators. The results of these surveys provide conclusive data that the cargo bike industry is scaling at pace. For 2022, survey participants expect to sell nearly 100,000 cargo bikes. Looking at the figures given by national industry associations and other sources, that suggests the survey is covering about 20% of the European cargo bike market.
Projecting the results of this survey sample to the European broader market, we might estimate that there will be around 400,000-500,000 cargo bikes sold this year in Europe, of which the proportion of cargo bikes used for commercial use corresponds to 17%.
What’s really interesting from the OEM survey is that three years ago, only one company was selling more than 5,000 bikes. Now there are six! The evidence suggests companies are scaling fast and not only is investment is being channelled into the sector to meet demand, but that there is strong potential for new entrants.
Looking specifically at cargo bikes used for commercial purposes, our survey results indicate that our respondents have achieved aggregate revenues of €400 M, employment of 28,000 people, total travel of 250 M of km, and 50,000 tons of CO₂ saved per year. If we project that to the whole of Europe, we can estimate that the existing fleet of commercial cargo bikes is generating around €2.5 bn revenues, 170,000 employees, 1.5 bn of km travelled, and saving 302,000 tons of CO₂ per year.
These survey results prove what many of us have known for a long time - cargo bikes are an important segment of the cycling market and their potential is far from being fully exploited! This is a major economic opportunity for Europe. The fast growth of new jobs, new investments and level of revenues suggests that new players will soon join the sector to make it even bigger and more relevant.
Project partners gathered for the CCCB Final Conference at Eurobike, on 14th July 2022.