Did e-bike imports exceed the value of non-e-bike imports last year? Maybe

WASHINGTON (BRAIN) — Two industry research groups have shared estimates of the number of e-bikes the U.S. imported last year, with one group estimating a record number of imports and the other estimating a significant decline from 2024. By one estimate, the value of e-bikes imported last year exceeded the value of non-electric bikes for the first time.

Peter Woolery from Bicycle Market Research estimates the industry imported 1.3 million e-bikes last year. Meanwhile, the Light Electric Vehicle Association and eCycleElectric Consultants put the number much higher: 2.2 million e-bikes. Both groups say they use a similar method to get their total: a close examination of thousands of import records, relying partly on deep industry knowledge to separate out e-bikes from other electric two-wheelers, which share a HTUS import code. 

Because of the shared code, BRAIN typically reports on the imports of non-electric bikes, and industry members have been tallying those imports in a similar way for decades (BRAIN has been doing it in our Tradewatch column in our print magazine since the early 1990s, when we received the figures in a thick manila envelope each month.) That history is why our article on the total number of bikes imported in 2025 caught the attention of some longtime industry watchers. We reported that 2025 bike imports slumped to the lowest figures in decades, dropping to the lowest unit count this century and the lowest dollar value ($850 million) since 2003, dropping below the billion-dollar line for the first time since 2006. 

But e-bikes have quickly replaced non-electric bike sales in many categories and channels, and e-bikes have a significantly higher average selling price. So what do the import figures look like if we include them?

LEVA estimates a record  

LEVA/eCycleElectric estimated that the U.S. imported 2.2 million e-bikes last year, a 24% increase over 2024. Added to the USA Trade Online count of bicycles imported, the total number of bikes and e-bikes imported comes to 10.74 million, above the magic 10-million mark. Using LEVA's estimates for the last five years added to the USA Trade figures, we see 2025’s total was far from a record low. In fact a lower number was reached as recently as 2023.

(eCycleElectric’s blog post on the figures is on their website).  

This chart shows LEVA estimates added to the USA Trade Online figures (LEVA has an estimate for 2016, but not for 2017-2019):

Bicycle Market Research finds a smaller number

BMR’s Peter Woolery has estimated e-bike imports going back to 2016. Since 2020, his estimates have been relatively close to LEVA’s, sometimes higher, sometimes lower, as the table below shows. But for 2025, LEVA’s number is more than 40% higher than Woolery’s.

Combining BMR’s estimate with the USA Trade Online figures, the 2025 total is still under 10 million, and still the lowest count in at least 26 years. 

 What about the dollar value?

Neither LEVA nor BMR estimates the dollar value of e-bike imports.

But given the higher average value of e-bikes, one wonders: If we added the value or e-bikes imported (and sold, presumably) to the value of non-electric bikes, what would the total look like? More importantly, what would the trend of the totals look like?

Just for giggles, BRAIN estimated the average e-bike Customs Value at $400 — probably a low estimate, but in line with some quick estimates from trusted industry sources. Multiplying the $400 times LEVA's unit import estimates, we get a chart that looks like this:

 There are many disclaimers, starting with: 

• We are multiplying an estimated Customs Value times an estimated unit count. The opportunities for wildly inaccurate totals is multiplied
• We used the LEVA figures for this chart. LEVA’s 2025 e-bike count is 43% higher than Bicycle Market Research’s estimate. A chart using BMR’s numbers looks different, especially the 2025 column, which is much smaller. (We made that chart, too. It's below) 
• Values are not inflation adjusted, or adjusted to reflect the higher Customs Values recorded in 2021 and 2022 due to market conditions. If anyone cares to do that, please share. 

Nevertheless, the chart above shows what some internet commenters predicted after we published the non-electric 2025 import totals: Namely, that while 2025 imports of non-electric bikes were historically low, the combined dollar value of e-bikes and non-e-bikes was — while lower than the pandemic figures — not quite as historic. In fact, using LEVA’s e-bike estimate, 2025’s combined value was higher than 2023, 2024 and even 2020. 

Also, the chart shows that last year, using these estimates, the value of e-bike imports passed the value of non-electric bike imports for the first time, a milestone reached in Europe several years ago, Weinert noted. (Under BMR’s estimate, the industry hasn’t met the milestone, with the value of e-bikes making up 38% of the total in 2025).