Poland becomes Europe’s second largest exporter of e-bikes

Poland is gearing up to be one of the European Union’s largest producers of bicycles this year, with exports of electric bikes particularly strong.

The country was already last year the EU’s fourth largest producer of traditional bikes. Its 974,000 units was behind only Portugal (2.7 million), Italy (2.1 million) and Germany (1.5 million).

After Poland, other large European producers include the Netherlands (739,000), France (551,000), Bulgaria (526,000) and Romania (525,000).

Yet whereas production of traditional bikes in Poland has backpedalled somewhat (falling by 10% from 2018 to 2019), electric bikes have been making a rapid ascent.

Although there are no official national statistics on overall electric bike production in Poland, export numbers are known. In the first five months of this year, Poland exported almost 48,000 e-bikes.

That was more than in the whole of last year, when the figure stood at 40,000, which in turn was up from 16,000 in 2018. It is second in the EU only to Germany (251,000) so far this year, and ahead of Italy (41,000) and Portugal (40,000), according to Business Insider.

Poland has also been increasing its share of the export market among EU member states. So far this year, it has accounted for almost 5% of the EU’s exported electric bikes, up from 1.5% in 2019 and 0.9% in 2018.

The average value of a bike exported from Poland is around €700, according to Eurostat, as compared with €1,700 for Germany and €600 for Portugal.

Source: Eurostat via Business Insider

Reports have indicated that the popularity of cycling has increased across Europe during the pandemic. A study in June by Nationale-Nederlanden, a Dutch insurer, found a quarter of Poles saying they planned to use bikes and scooters for the daily commute from fear of infections in public transport.

According to data published by Decathlon, a French sports store popular in Poland, interest in its bikes has risen by over 80% relative to the previous year. Cycling is perceived as an epidemiologically “safe” activity, according to the company’s representatives, quoted by Business Insider.

Cycling had already been growing in popularity in Poland over recent years. According to a 2019 study by market research company ARC Rynek i Opinia, 38% of Poles consider it their favourite sport, whilst figures released from Statistics Poland (GUS), a state agency, reveal that the bicycle is the most common piece of sports equipment in Poland, present in almost three quarters of households.

There has been significant investment in cycling in Poland to meet demand, with a growing network of bike lanes in cities. The “Warsaw Cycle Path Development by 2020 Programme”, introduced in 2010, has led to approximately 200 km of new cycle paths being built in the capital.

Nevertheless, in Nationale-Nederlanden’s study, half of Polish cyclists said they felt threatened by other road users, with a third of those surveyed saying their biggest fear is of colliding with a car or bus. In 2019, the main police headquarters (KGP) recorded 4,400 accidents that involved a cyclist, reports Business Insider.

Main image credit: Pxhere (under public domain)

Maria Wilczek

Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.