E-bike leasing expected to skyrocket as new company-bike regulation takes effect

The bicycle industry in the Netherlands is preparing for skyrocketing sales of electric bicycles in 2020. Thousands of companies are eager to make use of the new tax-friendly lease scheme with which employers can provide employees with a "company bike". Industry association Bovag and RAI expect that up to 150 thousand more e-bikes will be sold next year, AD reports.

The new lease regulation takes effect on January 1st. It sets the addition for lease bicycles at 7 percent, making it particularly attractive for companies to make electric bikes available to their staff. An employee who leases an e-bike worth 3 thousand euros, only needs to add 210 euros to their taxable income. The net cost of the lease bike amounts to only 7 euros per month, less than a Netflix subscription. The employer pays the purchase of the bicycle, or the total lease amount, from the travel allowance that employees receive.

"Immediately after January 1, we expect a significant increase in sales", Daan van Renselaar, director of Stella Fietsen, said to AD. His company sold 65 thousand e-bikes last year. "Next year there will be many more."

At Accell Group, the manufacturer of e-bike brands like Sparta and Batavus, it is all hands on deck. "We have made room for extra production capacity in our factories", spokesperson Debbie de Wagenaar said to the newspaper. Over the past months, Accell Group received dozens or sometimes hundreds of orders per day, the spokesperson said.