Increased bike demand in Russia for 2020

Demand for bikes has been growing in Russia even before the  Covid-19 pandemic, with the demand for e-bikes being the leading growing bike sector in 2020.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand for e-bikes in Russia has nearly doubled, while mountain bikes maintained their popularity, Electra Bicycle Company Russia & China, the exclusive distributor of Electra bikes in Russia, estimated.

”This year, due to warm weather, the bike season in Russia has begun exceptionally early – in March, and is not yet over,” commented Raimond Mednis, the company’s co-owner. ”We see a soaring demand in all product categories, but primarily in the e-bikes segment, where sales have tripled compared to the previous year,” Mednis estimated.

The company sold out all stocks already in July. Mednis added that there was an evident shortage of e-bikes at that time.

The biggest Russian online retailer Wildberries has managed to sell by a factor of 16 times more e-bikes since the beginning of the year, as compared to the same period of the previous year, the company estimated.

One of the reasons behind the soaring popularity of e-bikes is the relatively low demand for conventional city bikes in Russia, Mednis explained. According to him, most retailers are focused on selling mountain bikes, whose share in overall sales remained relatively high this year.

The overall sales of bikes in Russia skyrocketed in May of 2020 and has remained high ever since, Kirill Ostapenko, owner of the Russian bicycle retailer Velodrive said. The overall sales are nearly two times higher compared to the same period of the previous year. The biggest shortage is seen for bicycles in the price category between 20,000 (€246-$280) rubles and 50,000 rubles (€615-$701)come too small.