October 2026 newsletter on outdoor e-bike charging

Europe bought fewer bikes last year, and cycling still grew.

Bike and e-bike sales in Europe fell 2.6% in 2025, according to European Cycling Industries. This August, a Dutch court declared the Dutch arm of bike maker Accell Group bankrupt. Yet in 2025, Eco-Counter's index of cycling across 14 countries, mostly in Europe and North America, rose 5%. Stolen bikes also cost more than ever. In Germany, the average insured loss per theft reached a record €1,270 in 2025, according to the insurers' association GDV.

Every bike on the road needs somewhere safe to stop, and more of them need charging when they get there. More and more buildings now want that charging done outside.

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🔌 E-Bike Charging Moves Outdoors 🔌

🏛 Why buildings are banning indoor e-bike charging

Several Swedish universities have moved e-bike batteries out of their buildings. Since 1 January 2026, Karolinska Institutet has banned charging private e-bike batteries on its premises. Larger batteries may only be stored outdoors or in bicycle garages. KI wrote the rule in response to new requirements from its insurer, Kammarkollegiet. Örebro University adopted a similar ban in December 2025, and Uppsala and Borås restricted e-bike batteries on campus in 2024.

Councils, landlords and regulators elsewhere are tightening the rules too:

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Shetland Islands Council banned indoor e-bike storage and charging in all its buildings, schools included, in March
• 🇨🇦 Toronto Community Housing has banned e-bike storage and charging in common areas since March, except in charging areas it designates
• 🇦🇺 Since February, e-bikes and batteries sold in New South Wales must be certified, and many apartment buildings now only allow certified devices to be stored or charged in shared areas

Behind all of it is fire risk. London Fire Brigade recorded 206 e-bike and e-scooter fires in 2025, the most it has ever recorded and about a fifth more than the year before. UK government data shows that 34 of 82 fires in converted e-bikes started while charging.

🇦🇺 Outdoor e-bike charging at UNSW Sydney

A building that moves charging outside still has to give riders somewhere to charge. UNSW Sydney has offered that since 2022, with ten Bikeep e-bike charging docks under a covered walkway on Union Road, outside the Law & Justice Library. Each dock locks the rider's own charger in a box while the bike charges.

• 🔌 About 8,000 parkings since May 2022
• ⏱ A median stay of about six hours, roughly a working day
• 📅 84% of arrivals on weekdays
• ⭐ 4.95 out of 5 from 349 rider ratings

👉 Read the full story: University e-bike charging keeps batteries out of campus buildings

E-bike charging outside the building at UNSW Sydney

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🎯 Bikeep News 🎯

📈 Smart bike parking: 13% more parkings so far in 2026

While Europe's bike sales fell, use of our stations kept growing. From January to September, the Bikeep network logged 13% more parkings than in the same months of 2025, according to our platform data. Stations with e-bike charging grew much faster. In September:

• 🔌 Twice as many stations with e-bike charging were in use as a year earlier
• ⚡ One in five parkings happened at a station with e-bike charging, up from one in ten

🇳🇿 Big Street Bikers: free bike parking and charging across New Zealand

Big Street Bikers showed its first Bikeep dock at Aotea Square in Auckland in 2018. Its Locky Dock network now has about 100 free parking and charging stations across New Zealand, including Auckland, Christchurch and Whangārei.

• 🚲 About 198,000 parkings by more than 14,300 riders
• 📺 Paid for by screen advertising and sponsorship, with oOh!media linking Locky Docks to its street furniture network
• 🏛 Free for riders, with little or no cost to councils

👉 How Big Street Bikers built 100 Locky Dock stations across New Zealand

Locky Dock e-bike parking and charging, New Zealand

🇷🇸 Park 011: free bike parking and charging across Belgrade

Park 011 opened its first station at Kalemegdan, Belgrade's fortress park, in 2021. It now runs about 16 free parking and charging stations for bikes and e-scooters, mostly in Belgrade, with one in Kotor, Montenegro.

• 📺 Every station has a digital screen, and mobile operator A1 Srbija has sponsored the network since August 2024
• 🛍 Ušće Shopping Center has logged about 6,800 parkings on its own
• 🚲 About 20,900 parkings by about 3,200 riders since 2021

👉 How Park 011 built a free bike parking network across Belgrade

Park 011 in Belgrade, with A1 Srbija on the screen

According to Locky Dock CEO Kirsten Corson, her network's media partner hasn't put a limit on how many stations it wants.

👉 Media companies want more bike stations in the ground

👉 Want to build a network like this in your country? Become a Bikeep partner

🎙 The Bikeep Podcast, one lesson at a time

We turned our conversation with Kirsten Corson, CEO of Locky Dock, into short guides for anyone building a public bike parking network:

• 🗣 How to pitch secure bike parking to a city council
• 🏛 Councils can get public bike parking and e-bike charging for free
• 📍 Build public bike parking at the nodes of daily life
• 🍦 A local retailer offer can fill a bike station
• 🚗 An e-bike costs cents to run where a car costs dollars

Clips from the episode run here on LinkedIn every Tuesday and Thursday until 19 November, when the series ends with Kirsten's advice for new bike parking operators. Follow Bikeep and Kristjan Lind to catch them.

▶️ Watch the full conversation: Bikeep Podcast with Kirsten Corson on YouTube

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💡 Why This Matters

Cycling is growing while bike sales fall, stolen bikes cost more than ever, and more buildings want e-bike batteries charged outside. All of that adds to the demand for secure parking and outdoor charging wherever people ride.

Big Street Bikers and Park 011 built their businesses on that demand, with advertising paying for the stations so riders park and charge for free. Park 011 started with one station at Kalemegdan in 2021 and now runs about 16. UNSW added outdoor charging for its own campus. Across our network, parkings grew 13% from January to September.

The screen pays for the station

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🌱 Let's Build Smarter Cities Together 🌱

If you're ready to bring secure bike parking and e-bike charging to your city, campus, shopping center or business district, we'd love to collaborate.

📩 Get in touch at bikeep.com/contact. If you want to build a network like Big Street Bikers or Park 011 in your own market, start at bikeep.com/become-partner.

🚲 Ride on with Bikeep! 🚲

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📚 Sources

• Europe bike and e-bike sales, 2025: European Cycling Industries, 2026 Bicycle Industry and Market Profile, 29 July 2026
• Accell Group's Dutch businesses declared bankrupt on 11 August 2026: Escape Collective, 12 August 2026
• Cycling in 14 countries, 2025: Eco-Counter Global Cycling Index, 10 February 2026
• Average insured loss per bike theft in Germany, 2025: GDV, updated 18 May 2026
• Swedish university battery rules: Karolinska Institutet (from 1 January 2026), Örebro University (decided 9 December 2025), Uppsala University (2 October 2024), University of Borås (29 January 2024)
• Shetland Islands Council ban: Shetland Islands Council, 10 March 2026
• Toronto Community Housing rules: E-Device Policy, approved October 2025; tenant FAQ, in effect from 2 March 2026
• New South Wales certification, full requirements from 1 February 2026: NSW Fair Trading; apartment by-laws: REINSW, March 2026
• London e-bike and e-scooter fires, 2025: London Fire Brigade, 28 January 2026
• UK fires in converted e-bikes during charging: GOV.UK, Fires in e-bikes and e-scooters 2025
• Bikeep network figures: Bikeep platform data, January to September 2026 compared with the same months of 2025
• UNSW, Big Street Bikers and Park 011 figures: the Bikeep articles linked in each section
• Locky Dock's media partner and station demand: Kirsten Corson in Media companies want more bike stations in the ground, 27 October 2026

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The latest updates on the micromobility world, and around Bikeep.