January 27, 2020 - Technological innovations and the spread of bikesharing platforms are making bicycling more attractive to millions of commuters. Bicycling’s upswing in popularity could mean cleaner air, less traffic, and healthier people for cities worldwide.

Drivers, check your rearview mirrors: More and more cyclists are taking to the roads, and they’re not going away anytime soon. We predict that tens of billions of additional bicycle trips per year will take place in 2022 over 2019 levels.

This increase in bicycling will double the number of regular bicycle users in many major cities around the world where cycling to work is still uncommon. (In the United States and Canada, for instance, only about 1 percent of the workforce commutes by bike today).1 In total, we predict a 1 percentage point rise in the proportion of people who bike to work during the three years from 2019 to 2022.

40 million units worldwide in 2023
Now, thanks largely to recent improvements in lithium-ion battery (LIB) technology, pricing, and power, the e-bike market is seeing a surge in interest, particularly for high-end models. Between 2020 and 2023, more than 130 million e-bikes (using all battery technologies) are expected to be sold, and in 2023, e-bike sales are expected to top 40 million units worldwide, generating about US$20 billion in revenue.

To put these numbers into context, only 12 million electric vehicles—that is, automobiles and trucks—are expected to sell in 2025; at the end of 2018, just 5.1 million electric vehicles were in circulation.

Read more here.