Live in France? Own a car? Fancy an e-bike? Well as part of its plans to encourage more of its citizens to reduce their carbon emissions the French government is considering offering residents €2,500 to trade in their motor for an electric bicycle.
The scheme has passed a preliminary vote but there are currently still a few regulatory issues to be ironed out.
If it does go through France will be the third European nation to offer such a scheme following initiatives in Finland and Lithuania,
Finland’s rebate scheme has been used to fund more than 2,000 e-bikes, 1,000 new low emission cars, and 100 public transport tickets, while the Lithuanian government offered €1,000 ($1,200) if they traded in their old cars. They could then spend that cash on greener forms of transport.
It will be interesting to see which other countries follow the lead of the trio. In the UK sales of e-bikes are soaring (Halfords reports that last year one in three adult bikes sold were electric against just 14% last year) but it would seem unlikely that it would offer a similar scheme having just withdrawn the Green Homes Grant.
