A month after launching its Stride e-cargo bike and trike, Raleigh is looking to team up with major couriers to replace some of their parcel delivery vans. The manufacturer believes that e-cargo bikes will have, “one of the biggest growth trajectories over the next four or five years,” and predicts there will be twice as many sales in 2021 as in 2020.

Upon their release, Raleigh’s Stride e-bikes were pitched as being for everyday family use with child seats and the like available.

However, commercial partnerships manager at Raleigh UK, Edward Pegram, told the FT that the firm’s e-cargo bike ambitions were increasingly broadening.

“For Raleigh, e-cargo bikes have one of the biggest growth trajectories over the next four or five years,” he said. “Raleigh was a brand very much focused on leisure. It’s an everyman brand. We’re not exclusive. But e-cargo bikes have opened us up to an opportunity to enter into the business market.”

He estimates that only around 2,000 e-cargo bikes were sold in the UK last year, but predicts this will double in 2021.

> Electric cargo bikes deliver faster than vans

A recent study of GPS data from e-cargo bike delivery firm Pedal Me found that their bikes deliver considerably more quickly and efficiently than vans in city centres.

The researchers found that Pedal Me’s bikes had a higher average speed and dropped off 10 parcels an hour, compared with six for vans.

Hirra Khan Adeogun from climate charity Possible, which commissioned the study, commented: “We’ve seen home deliveries skyrocket during the Covid lockdowns and that trend is likely to continue. We urgently need to put on the brakes and re-evaluate how goods move through our cities. Cargo bikes are one solution that we need to get behind.”