Win for Dutch e-bike market – spicy “two become one” merger

The merger of SURE Mobility and Smart Wheelz is set to create one of the largest rental companies for e-bikes in the Netherlands.

In a LinkedIn post, SURE Mobility’s founder, Dutch serial entrepreneur Patrick De Wit, appeared to reference the 1996 Spice Girls track "2 Become 1", with pink and orange heart imagery accompanying the merger announcement.

“Two become one!” he wrote, adding that the new combined organisation would focus on “jointly producing, selling and renting unique electric vehicles” for the tourist sector. In addition, he said SURE Mobility and Smart Wheelz would also jointly develop shared mobility concepts such as Multi Mobility Charging Islands (integrated charging hubs designed to support various types of electric vehicles), Bicycle-as-a-Service (BaaS) unmanned hub-based rental solutions, and e-locks.

Terneuzen: a new European mobility hub?

SURE Mobility already produces a range of e-vehicles, including the e-chopper, a leisure e-vehicle featuring a powerful battery with a range of 50km on a single charge. Smart Wheelz has also developed an electric scooter designed for day rental and sales to the private market.

De Wit said that the firms would be “housed together in the beautiful city of Terneuzen”, in the province of Zeeland in the southwestern Netherlands.

The merger follows a reported investment of an undisclosed amount in SURE Mobility in January from Raymon Pouwels. He is the co-founder of GO Sharing (a leading shared moped operator in Belgium and the Netherlands) and Umob, a Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform integrating various transportation providers into a single app.

A market comeback for e-bikes?

The deal between SURE Mobility and Smart Wheelz comes as Europe’s e-bike scene hopes for growth in 2025 following sales fluctuations in recent years. In 2023, several European countries reported a combined 8% decrease in e-bike sales, totalling approximately 4.18 million units, down from 4.56 million in 2022, according to data from Bike Europe.

Despite this downturn, the market is projected to recover and expand according to data from Market Data Forecast. Its estimates suggest that the European e-bike market, valued at USD 14.86 billion (€13.5 billion) in 2024, will reach USD 16.69 billion (€15.2 billion) in 2025 and USD 42.35 billion (€38.6 billion) by 2033.