Kelowna’s e-bike explosion foreshadows the future of the industry in Canada

A hint of Canada’s evolving cycling culture can be found in a recent Kelowna B.C. townhouse listing. Posted at $674,900, the unit comes with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, appliances and an electric fireplace. To sweeten the deal, the townhouse also comes with an e-bike, an item rapidly becoming a staple of Kelowna households.

A retirement community

Kelowna, population 142,146 (217,229 in the metropolitan area), is located in B.C.’s Okanagan Valley. The population skews older—21.7 per cent of Kelowna’s residents are 65 and older (compared to the national average of 16.9 per cent). The city is located near a wealth of bikeable activities, with provincial parks, vineyards, mountains and orchards abound. For many older residents, the local trails have become much more accessible as of late, with the help of the rapidly growing e-bike industry.

There are five e-bike retailers in Kelowna, more than in nearby Calgary, a city almost ten times its size. In North America, the leading e-bike demographic is riders 45-54, 55-64, and 65+. In a 2018 survey of North American e-bike users, researchers found that adults aged 55 and older were more likely to use e-bikes for recreational reasons and for increasing fitness, whereas younger respondents were more likely to use them to replace car trips.

So what happens when you have a population in the e-bike demographic with access to an extensive cycling network? The Kelowna Daily Courier dubbed 2019 ‘the Year of the E-bike’. “It’s becoming pretty evident that the whole e-bike scene in Kelowna is exploding,” says Jason at Kelowna E Ride. He notes that the bikes do appeal to baby-boomer cyclists, but it doesn’t hurt that, “The riding here is awesome.”

Since the lockdown, Kelowna E Ride has experienced the same monumental jump in business as most bike shops across the country but, even before the pandemic, local interest in e-bikes shifted from a steady climb to an explosion over the past two years.

As Canada ages

In 2012, almost one in seven Canadians was a senior—by 2030, that number will jump to nearly one in four. As the population ages, e-bikes will continue to attract seniors looking for a healthy outdoor pastime.

In January Deloitte predicted that e-bikes will generate about $26 billion in revenue by 2023. If industry predictions hold, the bikes, which are growing in popularity throughout Canadian cities, will rapidly become as common they are in Kelowna.