Photo: Specialized
Something has to change about how we move around the cities because they’re growing more congested, more polluted, and more difficult to navigate. Most European countries are rushing toward a 2030 deadline to reduce greenhouse emissions, which involves a wider adoption of electric vehicles.
If an initiative now being considered in France goes through, this adoption could extend to cover two-wheelers—e-Bikes, to be more exact.
Reuters reports that lawmakers in the National Assembly have approved an amendment to a draft bill, which will soon come up for preliminary voting, that would entail a €2,500 subsidy for a new e-bike upon trading in your old ICE (internal combustion engine) car. To put things into perspective, that’s roughly $3,000 at the current exchange rate: more than enough to get a solid city bike with all the accessories you need for it to replace your car.
France aims for a 40% reduction in greenhouse emissions in 2030. Should the amendment pass, it will become the first country to include e-bikes in a scrappage program and to consider the option of cutting out all cars as a means to reduce pollution.
Kevin Mayne, chief executive at Cycling Industries Europe, tells BikeBiz that, as shocking as the proposition might sound (an old ICE car for a new e-bike), it makes sense. “We are seeing a welcome increase in stand-alone incentives for bicycle purchases, but the French Assembly has made it clear – e-bikes and cargo bikes are to be supported as vehicle replacements. Every Government needs to recognize that it is the cycling industries of Europe that are leading the world in the change to e-mobility,” Mayne says in a statement to the media outlet.
The majority of e-bike makers choose to market their products as valid “car replacements,” either for the daily commute or running errands. Whether car owners who also ride e-bikes will be willing to trade the one for the other remains to be seen.
Reuters reports that lawmakers in the National Assembly have approved an amendment to a draft bill, which will soon come up for preliminary voting, that would entail a €2,500 subsidy for a new e-bike upon trading in your old ICE (internal combustion engine) car. To put things into perspective, that’s roughly $3,000 at the current exchange rate: more than enough to get a solid city bike with all the accessories you need for it to replace your car.
France aims for a 40% reduction in greenhouse emissions in 2030. Should the amendment pass, it will become the first country to include e-bikes in a scrappage program and to consider the option of cutting out all cars as a means to reduce pollution.
Kevin Mayne, chief executive at Cycling Industries Europe, tells BikeBiz that, as shocking as the proposition might sound (an old ICE car for a new e-bike), it makes sense. “We are seeing a welcome increase in stand-alone incentives for bicycle purchases, but the French Assembly has made it clear – e-bikes and cargo bikes are to be supported as vehicle replacements. Every Government needs to recognize that it is the cycling industries of Europe that are leading the world in the change to e-mobility,” Mayne says in a statement to the media outlet.
The majority of e-bike makers choose to market their products as valid “car replacements,” either for the daily commute or running errands. Whether car owners who also ride e-bikes will be willing to trade the one for the other remains to be seen.
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