According to Dutch bike theft monitor SAFE, 2021 saw a 25 per cent increase in the number of people reporting their e-bikes stolen compared to the year before. The rise came despite reports of non-electric bike thefts falling by 45 per cent.

According to Dutch News, 22,593 people reported their e-bikes stolen last year, a rise of 25 per cent on 2020 and 75 per cent on 2019.

Reports of thefts of other kinds of bike were down by 45 per cent to 26,365.

This is part of a longer-term trend that is in large part borne of booming sales. Quite simply, there are a lot more e-bikes around nowadays.

Bike Europe reports that 547,000 e-bikes were sold in the Netherlands in 2020, meaning that for the first time they accounted for 50 per cent of total bike sales.

The e-bike theft figures do however reflect another trend, which is that e-bike owners are thought to be significantly more likely to report that their bike has been taken.

SAFE estimates that eight or nine times as many unassisted bikes will have been stolen as people often consider reporting one to be a waste of time.

E-bike owners, in contrast, are more likely to have taken out insurance and will therefore need a police report to claim compensation.