Taiwan's electric bicycle industry sees rapid growth

TAIPEI -- Taiwan's electric bicycle industry is seeing rapid growth, according to the island's economic affairs authority.

Thanks to rising environmental awareness, electric bicycles, which help decrease carbon emissions and require no driver's license, have seen an increase in production in Taiwan. From January to June, more than 6 billion new Taiwan dollars ($195 million) worth of electric bicycles were produced in Taiwan, a year-on-year increase of 74.4 percent.

Last year, the industry saw a production of electric bicycles worth 7.28 billion new Taiwan dollars, a record high. Authorities expect this year's total production value to exceed 10 billion new Taiwan dollars.

Taiwan's electric bicycles are mainly exported to Europe and the United States. As demand rises, the island's electric bicycle export value rose from about $16.7 million in 2012 to $250 million in 2017, with the electric bicycles mainly sold to the Netherlands, Germany and the United States. Last year, the export value accounted for 96.4 percent of the total production value.

The European Union is one of the biggest markets thanks to the leisure tourism industry and the rise in the aging population there. In 2017, Taiwan's electric bicycles accounted for 23.4 percent in the EU's imports of electric bicycles, second only to the Chinese mainland.