France Offering $3,000 Vouchers for E-Bikes If You Throw Away Your Car

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

France is offering 2,500 euros (about $2,993 USD) to individuals interested in purchasing electrically driven bicycles. But it’s pursuing the Cash for Clunkers mentality that often leaves us questioning whether the people instituting these environmental plans are familiar with the concept of conservation. Because the current proposal requires participants to throw away their automobiles before they’re granted access to the funds.

Originally reported by Reuters, and presented to us by a reader sharing a Jalopnik article, the matter curiously requires e-bike riders to scrap a vehicle that’s almost guaranteed to be worth more than the voucher they’ll be exchanging it for.

Last week, lawmakers in the National Assembly (the lower house of the French Parliament) approved the measure in a preliminary vote as part of an amendment to a draft climate bill. The initiative is targeting a reduction of greenhouse emissions by 40 percent in 2030 against levels taken in 1990.

From Reuters:

If adopted, France will become the first country in the world to offer people the chance to trade in an ageing vehicle for an electric or folding bicycle, the French Federation of Bicycle Users (FUB) said.

“For the first time it is recognised [sic] that the solution is not to make cars greener, but simply to reduce their number,” said Olivier Schneider of the FUB.

While we’re not sure if scrappage programs are ever as environmentally sound as they claim to be, it’s difficult to argue that e-bikes will have a bigger carbon footprint than whatever they’ll be replacing. But they’ll also be ill-suited to the kind of long-distance traveling we typically use automobiles for and imagine most individuals interested in the program will eventually end up buying another car when they could have ran their old beater for a few more years. Unless they’re content with relying upon mass transit, that is.

The measure has yet to pass and seems a bit daft but we’re not ruling anything out. France has launched numerous pro-bike initiatives in the past and has been handing cash to people willing to buy electrified two-wheelers for a few years. For example, the country was offering local grants of between €100 and €600 for residents interested in purchasing an e-bike in 2019.

FUB seems incredibly interested in advancing the new proposal and was expressing its dismay with France’s rejection of several ideas it had launched to tie the financial support of bicycle purchases to the nation’s Climate and Resilience laws. In March, the group cited over a dozen examples of pro-bicycle proposals that were rejected — citing that they were ideal solutions to reducing transportation-related emissions and should have been supported, especially considering France’s support for cycling as a hobby/sport.

“This systematic refusal of the debate on active mobility in the Climate Act is incomprehensible,” the FUB stated over social media.

[Image: Kovop58/Shutterstock]

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

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  • ToolGuy ToolGuy on Apr 15, 2021

    True fact: • In the past month I have logged more miles on foot than by motor vehicle. • More miles by bicycle than motor transport as well. • And more kayak trips than fuel stops. This episode of My Boring Life is brought to you by The Future. [During the pandemic I have been getting tremendous use out of some infrastructure funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.]

  • Jimble Jimble on Apr 15, 2021

    When I was still commuting to work I used to commute by e-bike most days, 10 miles each way. And I was a 60-year-old with a heart condition. I was lucky to be able to keep the bike in my office so I didn't have to worry about theft or juggle multiple bike locks all the time. In the US about half of all car trips are 5 miles or less, which is well within e-bike range (and within non-e-bike range for a healthy adult). There are lots of reasons why someone might prefer not to travel by bike -- hills, lack of safe infrastructure, weather, etc. I used to ride happily in temperatures well under freezing but riding in the rain was the one thing I could never tolerate. Even if you travel primarily by bike (or foot or transit) you might feel the need to keep a car for some trips, but maybe a family could sell their second car to save on insurance, maintenance, and all that. It's good to have options that are cheaper, healthier, and more sustainable than making all of your trips by car. It's also nice to have your own car sometimes, too. I don't drive mine very often but I'm not planning to sell it anytime soon.

  • AZFelix Hilux technical, preferably with a swivel mount.
  • ToolGuy This is the kind of thing you get when you give people faster internet.
  • ToolGuy North America is already the greatest country on the planet, and I have learned to be careful about what I wish for in terms of making changes. I mean, if Greenland wants to buy JDM vehicles, isn't that for the Danes to decide?
  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
  • Carson D The UAW has succeeded in organizing a US VW plant before. There's a reason they don't teach history in the schools any longer. People wouldn't make the same mistakes.
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