Taiwan’s export volumes to Europe remain high

TAIPEI, Taiwan – Notwithstanding all the reports about packed warehouses in Taiwan and high inventory levels at distributors and dealers worldwide, the shipments of e-bikes and bicycles from Taiwan to global markets were at a very high level throughout 2022. Component shortages appeared to be less problematic last year than in 2021, so the assembly could run at full capacity.

Jan-Willem van Schaik

Taiwan’s latest export statistics clearly show a hike in e-bike and bicycle exports for the second year in a row. In 2022, some 1,038,021 million e-bikes were shipped, an increase of 4.9%. Even more relevant was the hike in the total value, which rose by 18.1% to €1.449 billion. Throughout the year, the fluctuation in the export of e-bikes was very big. In June, at Eurobike the Taiwan Bicycle association reported a double digit increase in export volume between January-April.

Germany and the Netherlands are still solid export bases for e-bikes

Four months later, the increase in units had dropped to a minor 1.17% only. At that time is was already clear that both the UK and US markets were not performing very well as far as Taiwan made e-bike are concerned. At the end of 2022 it was clear that the biggest chunk in export volume was taken up by EU countries as both the US and UK saw a decline in units. Shipments to the US were down 8.5% to 248,659 units, while industry insiders were all predicting last year that the e-bike boom in the US had really started. Perhaps the economic headwind is having a bigger impact on e-bike sales than in other markets. Or the US market is shifting its focus from sourcing in Taiwan to China. While the volume was down, the export value to the US showed a striking growth of 18.1% to €421.1 million. Another remarkable decline in units in these export statistics is shown by the UK. Taiwan lost one-third of its shipments last year compared to 2021. Even the export value decreased by more than 10%.

Two key markets for e-bikes

The most sustainable growth was reported from Taiwan’s two important export markets in Europe: Germany (+5.4%) and the Netherlands (+10.1%). Perhaps percentage-wise, not the biggest growth compared to other EU countries, but both countries have a solid base of e-bike sales. Besides the local production of e-bikes in the Netherlands and Germany, the two countries are also important destinations for Taiwanese e-bikes, both for distribution locally and shipments to other EU countries.

Other notable changes in the shipment of Taiwanese e-bikes are to France, Italy, and the Czech Republic. In all three countries, e-bike sales have seen solid growth over the past few years, in line with the growing export volumes from Taiwan. The variation between the average FOB prices as reported by Taiwan’s customers statistics is very big and even questionable.

The average FOB price for each e-bike shipped to the Netherlands is €1,303, to Germany €816, and to the Czech Republic only €370. This can by no means reflect the local market situation or in case of the Czech Republic, the average sales price.

Rise in FOB prices

The mission set out by the Taiwan Bicycle Association to improve the quality and average FOB prices of Taiwan-made products proved successful and continued into 2022. While the assembly of bicycles made its way to other lowcost countries in the region like Vietnam and Cambodia, as well as close to the market in countries like Portugal, Bulgaria and Romania, Taiwan hasn’t lost its once leading position completely. The total export volume declined by only 1.7% to 1,925,295 units in 2022. On the contrary, the total export value hiked by 23% from €1.2 billion in 2021 to €1.5 billion last year. Between 2021 and 2022, the average FOB price of bicycles jumped from €617 to €772. Also, on

Source: BOFT Information Centre the EU market, Taiwan regained a share in relevant markets like France, Italy and Austria. Still, it also lost 9.5% of its export volume to the biggest market in the EU: the Netherlands.

Outside the EU, bicycle shipments to the UK were down 20% to 133,161 units, while the US market was rather stable at -1.1% at 806,551 units.