A lunchtime conversation on powering up the potential of e-bikes.

Having steadily risen in popularity over recent years, e-bike sales in the past eighteen months have rocketed across Europe, fuelled in no small part by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many European countries have seen e-bike growth of between 30 and 40%, compared to single-digit growth in car sales. Industry experts have predicted that this growth will continue, with sales in Europe expected to increase from 3.7 million per year in 2019, to 17 million per year by 2030.  

The UK has also witnessed this upward trend, but sales have been low compared to its European neighbours, with e-bikes accounting for just 3% of bikes sold in 2019, compared with between around 10 and 30% of sales in European countries, including those with less of an established ‘culture of cycling’.  

Drawing on the findings of a new report by Steer for the Urban Transport Group, this Urban Transport Next conversation will explore how we can power up the potential of e-bikes to reach people and places that other modes cannot, and, in doing so, meet and exceed government targets for mode shift, revolutionise the last mile and support wider policy goals, not least around decarbonisation.   

Book now to join the e-bike revolution.   

Date: Thursday 4th November 

Time: 13.00 – 14.00 

The event is free but you do need to register to attend. 

About the panel...

Olga Anapryenka is a Principal Consultant at Steer and a Co-Founder of the Women in Mobility (WiM) UK network. Olga has hands-on experience in understanding the interactions between disruptive technologies and their impact on mobility and social welfare. She has managed projects on new and innovative technologies, such as intelligent infrastructure, micromobility, Mobility-as-a-Service, mobility hubs and smart ticketing.  

Roger Geffen is Policy Director at Cycling UK. His involvement in cycle campaigning began as a volunteer with the London Cycling Campaign in the late 1980s. He soon branched out into other transport and environment groups, including anti-road campaigns in the mid-1990s. With the subsequent shift in national transport policy, he took a masters in Transport at London University and began working for Oxfordshire County Council on walking, cycling and local transport policies. After a spell with consultants Steer Davies Gleave, he joined Cycling UK as Campaigns & Policy Manager in 2002. He was awarded an MBE for services to cycling in 2015. 

Phillip Darnton (interviewer)is Chairman of the Bicycle Association, which represents the UK Cycle Industry. He also chairs the Cycle Rail Working Group for the Department for Transport, and sits on the DfT’s Stakeholder Advisory Group. He is the non-executive Chair of Brompton Bike Hire, and is the Patron of the Bikeability Trust. Phillip was awarded an OBE for services to cycling in 2011.