While the COVID-19 pandemic decimated parts of the global economy, it also created unique economic drivers in others. One of the “winners” in the new world we live in has been electric two-wheelers like e-bikes and e-motorcycles, which commuters have turned to in huge numbers.
Most electric bicycle and electric motorcycle companies are fairly tight-lipped about their sales numbers.
But with the huge demand spawned by consumers switching to two-wheeled EVs lately, several major manufacturers have opened up their books and revealed just how much they’ve grown over the past year.
Major Italian electric motorcycle manufacturer Energica recently shared that the first eight months of 2020 have seen an order volume of over 200% of its entire 2019 sales, with over €4.3M in revenue so far this year.
That puts Energica currently on track to triple its 2019 sales by the end of this year.
The largest electric bicycle manufacturer in the US, Rad Power Bikes, is also on track to more than triple its 2019 sales this year.
That puts Rad Power Bikes at a projected $250 million in revenue for 2020, no doubt buoyed by successful launches of budget-minded e-bikes like the $1,199 RadRunner and $999 RadMission electric bikes, in addition to their longtime favorites such as the $1,499 RadRover electric fat tire bike.
A major driving force behind this steep spike in sales has been the shift toward personal electric mobility driven by commuters seeking to avoid crowded public transportation. And Rad Power Bikes’ CEO Mike Radenbaugh recently explained to NPR that he doesn’t see this as a temporary spike, but rather as the new normal:
We think a switch was flipped and light has been shed on e-bikes as a tool for the masses. So now it’s not just about keeping up with this demand that has spiked after COVID-19 from people working from home, shopping from home, looking for socially distant ways to get around, but this is a switch that was flipped on and it’s not turning off for years to come, and so the work we are doing now is all about planning for future demand. It’s not about planning for next summer’s orders, it’s about planning for orders 10 years from now.
In fact, Rad Power Bikes has grown so large that Mike estimates the company’s US market share at a whopping 25%, with the other 75% spread across at least 100 other companies. Or to put it another way, everyone else is merely fighting for second place.
But Rad Power Bikes isn’t the only e-bike company showing impressive growth. Lectric E-Bikes doesn’t have the many years of operations to build on like Rad Power Bikes, but the electric bicycle startup has still shown explosive growth after beginning sales last summer.
In barely more than a year, the success of the company’s $899 Lectric XP e-bike has rocketed the manufacturer from a garage startup to around $25M in revenue, making them a major player in the electric bicycle industry.
Lectric E-Bikes even recently unveiled their second $899 e-bike model in barely a year, further demonstrating how quickly the company has grown.
And these are just the manufacturers that have agreed to share their sales figures with us. Considering the hundreds of companies all vying for a piece of the pie, the actual growth of the industry is hard to definitively quantify. But any which way you slice it, the trend is clear: electric two-wheeler adoption is growing rapidly and shows no signs of slowing anytime soon.
If you want to get in while the action is hot, check out our article on choosing your first electric bicycle, or see our list of the top electric bicycles for budget shoppers.
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