Bike & especially e-bike diffusion is growing at the world’s fastest pace in the European Union, also thanks to rich incentives.
The European Union is getting greener and greener
Climate change is being tackled seriously by the European union, although it is not enough to prevent further damages and catastrophes, (sigh!). The percentage of renewable energies in electricity production is more than 40% overall in the EU, see the picture below. Actually, only Latin America does better, thanks to a far lesser consumption and abundant, affordable hydroelectric production.
Electric car sales averaged more than 10% of the market in the EU for the past few years, second only to China, the latter reaching a considerable 20%.
Worldwide share percentages of renewable energy production- source: yearbook.enerdata.net
Ebikes are on a hot streak in the European Union
In several EU countries, like France and Italy, since 2019 bike sales beat car sales, exceeding 2 millions a year, almost half of those being ebikes since 2020. Germany does even better, counting more than 4.6 million ebikes presently riding. Not to talk about the Netherlands, probably world number one for per capita ebike ownership and usage.
KTM E-bike – made in EU
The EU aggressively promotes bike & ebike usage
In some domains, EU legislation prevails over national laws. That’s why, to abide by the former, European countries impose pollution limits. In the last few years, they realized that promoting bike usage through incentives, subsidies and fiscal advantages for people and companies, was an effective tool reduce carbon emissions. All the more for ebikes, inasmuch they are more likely than bikes to replace car driving. Although the world’s most bikes per capita are in China, the European Union is quickly catching up.
Cycling premia in Europe
There are currently almost 300 bicycle tax and purchase incentive schemes across Europe. These schemes are offered at national, regional and local levels to make it attractive to cycle more and drive less. While many incentives in Europe have already been introduced over the last decade, the number of schemes has increased significantly since 2019.
How to find the EU bike subsidies bonanza, per country
The European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) has mapped these schemes in a new online tool. The tool provides information on the amount of the grant, the type of bike and the eligible target groups. In the form of a search engine, the tool provides an overview of incentives by country.
The swift bicycle subsidy search tool
The bicycle subsidy search tool, here, is a search engine displaying national incentives according to the criteria of location, type of bicycle and target groups.
This tool is aimed at:
- Cyclists and future cyclists: by informing them of the available bonuses for the purchase of their future bicycle,
- Cycling advocates: by informing them of programmes already implemented elsewhere in Europe in order to reinforce their awareness-raising efforts,
- Cycling companies: by helping them to identify market opportunities across Europe in countries, regions or cities where incentives and purchase bonuses exist,
- Public entities: by presenting best practices, it can inspire public administrations and decision-makers to introduce schemes in their region.
Bicycle subsidy search tool – results example
