E-bike theft is surging in Australia, and here is why thieves target them

E-bike theft has stopped being a footnote and become a trend line. In New South Wales, e-bike thefts rose 27 percent over two years, from 1,644 to 2,080 in the year to March 2026, and the state's crime statistics agency now calls it the major contributor to growth in other stealing offences.

The head of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, Jackie Fitzgerald, put it plainly: as e-bikes have become more popular, they have become more attractive targets. Victoria tells the same story from a different angle, with 8,573 bicycles reported stolen in the year to March 2025, up more than 8 percent, and the worst suburbs per head being the inner-city cycling belt: Brunswick, Melbourne, St Kilda, Carlton and Richmond.

Why e-bikes, and not just any bike

The simple answer is money. A stolen pushbike is worth a few hundred dollars. A stolen e-bike, or the parts stripped from it, runs into the thousands. Bicycle Network sums up the incentive bluntly: there is more cash to be made and less risk of jail time when the expensive bits are pulled off and sold online.

• The battery and motor carry high standalone value and are hard to trace once detached, so they are often the real target, not the frame
• The second-hand market moves fast: stolen bikes and parts turn up quickly on Marketplace, Gumtree and eBay
• The pool of targets keeps growing, with the NSW government estimating around 760,000 e-bikes in that state alone

How easy is it, really

Easier than most owners assume. Cheap cable and lightweight locks fall to bolt cutters without a fight. A portable angle grinder, now the standard urban theft tool, cuts through most traditional locks in seconds. That is exactly why lock makers spent the past year racing to build grinder-resistant products. Only a small share of stolen bikes are ever recovered: of the roughly 30,000 bikes stolen in Australia each year, fewer than 10 percent are returned to their owners.

We are building out our coverage of what actually stops e-bike theft, from lock ratings to trackers to marking schemes, and we will be testing security gear directly. A dedicated guide to stopping e-bike theft, and hands-on lock testing, is coming next.