Swedish Government to offer funding for e-bike growth
Posted on in Cycles News
As reported in CyclingIndustry.news, the Swedish Government have included a segment relating to electric bikes in their budget bill for 2018, which includes a €37 million proposal to co-fund e-bike and e-moped sales.
As part of a wider 5 billion SEK package to bolster the country's efforts to reduce pollution and slow climate change, the funding is hoped to create jobs and rethink transport priority.
Investments in green transport are to include funds for solar cell, charging post for e-vehicles and a pot to incentivise electric bicycle uptake.
"Our generation should be able to hand over a society to our children where the major environmental problems are solved and where the cities should be living and healthy growing environments. There is a lot to be done to it - it has been under invested for sustainable development for too long, "said spokesperson Isabella Lövin.
E-bikes have seen strong, continued growth in Sweden. The Swedish bicycle industry association Cykelbranschen estimates sales of around 45,000 e-bikes in 2016 - up 34% from 2015. Import statistics from January to August show an import of 41,783 electric bicycles; more than the import total for the whole of 2015 (40,767 e-bikes).
E-bike export stood at 4,735 units over the first eight months of 2016. The e-bike production in Sweden is small and stands at around 1,800 units.