Bikes still outsell cars in Europe
Europe bought about 16.8 million bicycles in 2023 against 10.5 million new cars. The ratio has barely moved since this domain first reported it in 2013. What changed is that 5.1 million of the bikes had motors.
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What the 2013 post said
In April 2013 the European Cyclists' Federation pointed out that EU car registrations had fallen to about 12 million in 2012, their lowest since 1995, while bicycle sales had climbed from 18.9 million in 2000 to around 20 million in 2011. Nearly two bikes for every car. The post that used to live at this address repeated that figure, and a Streetsblog headline roundup linked to it.
The latest full-year figures
- 11.7 million conventional bicycles sold in the EU in 2023, down from 14.7 million in 2022 (CONEBI).
- 5.1 million e-bikes sold in 2023, down from 5.5 million in 2022 (CONEBI).
- 10.5 million new cars registered in the EU in 2023; 10.6 million in 2024, up 0.8% (ACEA).
Put together, that is 16.8 million bikes to 10.5 million cars: 1.6 bikes per car. Both markets came off a pandemic peak, so the headline ratio looks much as it did a decade ago. The composition doesn't. E-bikes were a rounding error in 2011; in 2023 they were 30% of every bike sold in the EU, and in money terms they are the bigger half of the business.
A European e-bike isn't an American one
Almost all of those 5.1 million are pedelecs: 250 W nominal motors that stop helping at 25 km/h (15.5 mph), with no throttle. That is slower than a US Class 1 bike and a long way from the 28 mph Class 3 models and 750 W motors that make up most of what's sold here. What the US classes mean explains the three-class system state by state.
The price picture is different too. The e-bikes we list have a median price of about $2,200 and more of them sit between $1,000 and $2,000 than in any other band; a large share of European volume sits at €2,500 and up through bike shops rather than direct-to-consumer brands.
Why this page exists
Before ePedaler, this domain was Bill Moore's ePEDALER blog (2012–2020), later Quikbyke. Its post "Bikes Out-Sell Cars in Europe Nearly Two-to-One" is still linked from other sites, so rather than return an error we've put an up-to-date answer at the same address. The original is on theWayback Machine. The text and figures on this page are ours.
Sources: CONEBI, European Bicycle Industry & Market Profile 2024;ACEA, new car registrations, December 2024; ECF figures as quoted in the 2013 post.