BOULDER, Colo. -

With sales expected to reach above 30 million units this year, Pike Research contends electric bicycles now are the world’s best-selling electric vehicles.

Analysts insisted rapidly accelerating urbanization, the increasing need for low-cost transportation in developing markets and expanding opportunities for new market entrants are all helping to drive e-bicycle sales. 

Pike’s newest reports also indicated that despite significant business challenges outside the Asia Pacific region, the market for electric bicycles is expected to grow strongly over the next several years.  

Pike computed that the worldwide market for e-bicycles will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 7.5 percent between 2012 and 2018, resulting in global sales of more than 47 million vehicles in 2018.  

The firm predicted China will account for 42 million of these e-bicycles that year, giving the country 89 percent of the total world market.

Analysts also tabulated that the e-bicycle market is anticipated to generate $6.9 billion in worldwide revenue this year, growing to $11.9 billion in 2018.  

Under a more aggressive forecast scenario, Pike projected worldwide e-bicycle sales could reach 51 million units and $13.2 billion revenue in 2018. 

“E-bicycle manufacturers and importers in North America and Latin America continue to struggle with a weak distribution network and modest demand,” Pike senior analyst Dave Hurst explained.

“As a result, the e-bicycle market is experiencing an accelerated rate of acquisitions and business failures,” Hurst continued. “Nevertheless, sales are expected to grow rapidly, with a CAGR of nearly 22 percent in North America from 2012 to 2018.” 

Hurst went on to highlight that the vast majority of the e-bicycles sold in China — the world’s largest market — utilize sealed lead acid (SLA) batteries.  

“While this has resulted in extremely low-cost e-bicycles in China, it has also led to a number of challenges including e-bicycle traffic congestion, lead contamination and manufacturers effectively ignoring laws relating to e-bicycles speed and weight limits,” he acknowledged.

Pike anticipates that the global penetration of lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries will grow from 6 percent in 2012 to 12 percent in 2018. 

“Cost pressures from Asia Pacific will keep manufacturers interested in SLA batteries through this decadep; but once manufacturing efficiencies have driven down the costs of Li-ion, we will start to see the decline of SLA as the battery of choice in e-bicycles,” Hurst noted.

Pike reiterated that its report titled, “Electric Bicycles,” is meant to provide a comprehensive analysis of the worldwide e-bicycle and e-bicycle battery industry including an examination of market forces, technology issues, government policy influences, the competitive landscape, and key drivers of growth. The study includes global forecasts for e-bicycle units and e-bicycle batteries through 2017, segmented by world region and key countries.

An executive summary of the report is available for free download at http://www.pikeresearch.com/research/electric-bicycles.