As oil prices have surged, Americans are turning to electric bikes to fill their transportation needs without relying on petroleum fuels. Bloomberg’s Ira Boudway reports:
The Pedego Electric Bike store in St. Louis normally closes for the month of February because there are not enough sales to justify keeping it open through the winter. This year, with an unusually large number of phone calls coming through, it re-opened early. February wound up being a “bonanza of a month” at the store, according to Pedego chief executive officer Don DiCostanzo, who oversees the e-bike brand’s 208 dealerships across North America. “We’re seeing a big spike in orders coming in way ahead of the season,” says DiCostanzo. “Every month there’s another record.”
Though he can’t prove it, DiCostanzo is convinced that rising fuel prices are driving sales. “I’m not going to tell you it’s all because of fuel,” he says. “But I absolutely believe it’s acting as a catalyst to get more people to consider alternate forms of transportation.”
Other e-bike brands and merchants in the U.S. tell a similar story: Sales are rising faster than expected, above already high expectations set by a pandemic boom. While the cause is hard to pin down — eased pandemic restrictions and the return to the office may play a part — most point to fuel prices as a contributing factor.
“I spend most of my day chatting with people that are either importers, brand managers or retailers of electric bikes,” says Ed Benjamin, founder and chairman of the Light Electric Vehicle Association. “And they’re already telling me that people are coming in and asking about and buying electric bikes as personal transportation.”
At Dutch e-bike maker VanMoof, sales over the past few weeks have been twice as high as the company’s projections. “We’re attributing that to rising gas prices,” says VanMoof co-founder and chief executive officer Taco Carlier in an email.
Gregg’s Cycle, one of the largest bike retailers in the Seattle area, just had its best February since it opened in 1932. “It was across the board, but e-bikes were a big percentage of that,” says longtime general manager Marty Pluth. “I think that was a result of the fuel hikes.”
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