• By 2023, there will be 300 million more electric bikes on the road than there are now, according to the accounting firm Deloitte.
• One explanation is that lithium-ion battery prices decreased by 87% between 2010 and 2019 and are now significantly lighter than the lead-acid batteries used in older e-bikes.
• Although e-bikes are not as popular in the United States as they are in some other countries, Deloitte predicts that bike sharing and the migration of people to cities will drive e-bike sales here as well.
  
  

There is no longer any question that electric vehicles will dominate the automobile business given the large number of new models that have been released. Between now and 2022 (this piece was created in 2019), a wide range of automakers, including Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Mazda, and many others, will release new electric vehicles. But e-bikes are also a viable option for electric transportation, and their popularity is surging. That is true not only in nations like the Netherlands, where biking has long been a popular mode of transportation but also in the United States, where, according to data from Deloitte, 400,000 e-bikes were sold in 2018 compared to 185,000 in 2013.

By 2023, according to the accounting firm Deloitte’s annual technology, media, and telecommunications study, there will be roughly 300 million e-bikes on the road worldwide, including both personal bikes and those used for ride-sharing.

There are a lot of e-bikes out there, and they’re succeeding without having any sort of futuristic appearance; e-bikes look like regular bicycles with pedals, but the rider has the option of using an electric motor that uses lithium-ion battery technology, similar to EVs. Since they are lighter than the lead-acid batteries that most electric bikes used until a few years ago, and because lithium-ion batteries are also becoming more affordable, e-bikes are becoming more widely available and are now priced anywhere from £800 for the least expensive models to well into the four figures for high-end ebikes models.

The popularity of this kind of transportation is made even more apparent when you consider the fact that an e-bike uses significantly less electric power than a four-wheeled EV.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) and Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) both forecast that 10 million and 12 million electric vehicles would be sold globally in 2025, respectively. According to the IEA, 125 million electric vehicles will be on the road by 2030.

E-bikes do cost less than new electric vehicles; the former often costs less than £1500, while the latter frequently cost more than £45,000. However, Deloitte’s forecast is evidence of how lithium-ion battery technology is evolving, including price reductions and improvements in efficiency that would make it attractive to regular consumers rather than just early adopters. Battery prices decreased by 87 per cent between 2010 and 2019, according to BNEF, which also forecasts that prices would drop another 50 per cent by 2023.

The price of electric vehicles and the potential demand for them will unavoidably be impacted by those price reductions. As more people become accustomed to the technology and what it offers, the desire for e-bikes may extend to the need for electric vehicles.

More and more people are relocating to metropolitan areas, where e-bikes are more practical for getting around, according to Jeff Loucks, executive director of Deloitte’s Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Centre, who spoke to The Verge about the projection of higher e-bike sales.

By now, everyone is aware that automakers are placing significant bets on the future of electric vehicles. Volkswagen has stated that it will invest $66 billion in new digital technology and electrification over the next five years. By 2022, Ford announced in 2018, it will spend $11 billion on electrification. Additionally, GM just revealed a $2.3 billion investment in an Ohio battery manufacturer. However, e-bikes will increasingly share the roads and the electricity with them—and with us.