Croatian Post has launched a tender for the purchase of 180 E-bikes. The bikes will replace 180 scooters with  conventional engines currently used for mail delivery. The decision to switch to E-bikes was reached after Pro-E-bike arranged for the Croatian Post to test the bikes in daily use.  The project also receives financial support from the Croatian government that wants to replace gas powered vehicles.

Flickr/Jurg Vollmer

After a 6 month testing period as part of the European funded project Pro-E-bike, where ECF is a partner, Croatian Post was  impressed to see how easy the E-bikes are to use and maintain. "They see E-bikes are a better solution than the scooters currently in use which have a range of 25-40 km. The E-bikes have that range too, but even when the battery power is gone, you can still ride the E-bike" says Dr Randy Rzewnicki, ECF Project Manger for Pro-E-Bike.

"This is a huge replacement, with a big impact. This shows that support for electric vehicles and technology is making a difference in the marketplace for logistics and transportation", said Ms. Zeljka Fistek from EIHP, Energy Institute Hrvoje Požar, the Croatian Energy Agency, leading the Pro-E-bike project. 

“This is exactly the kind of thing that Europe gives us funding to do. The Croatian Post made the calculations and saw the benefits.  We are proud to report that to date we can report 250 E-bikes are replacing motor vehicles due to efforts of the Pro-E-bike partners across the EU," ECF's Rzewnicki continued.

At Velo-city 2015 in Nantes, France, Pro-E-bike plans to present a simple calculation tool that every business and fleet manager can use to calculate how much money can be saved by switching to E-bikes. Decision makers will also learn of the wide variety of proven technologies and examples of good delivered by cycle from across Europe.  The half day side-event will take place on Tuesday 2 June, together with the EU project  Cyclelogistics.

Many European countries currently already have fleets of bikes in the service of postal delivery. In Croatia the post bikes are from the Krpan company which also supplies to the postal services of Estonia, Hungary, Bosnia Herzegovina, Latvia and others. The Portuguese Post CTT took delivery of 40 E-bikes in 2014 and will buy another 40 this year, said an executive representative for the company attending an IST sponsored workshop on the promotion of E-bikes in Lisbon.

"Projects like Pro-E-bike that enable the testing of these vehicle, help companies to make better decisions in selection of their vehicles, based on the specifics of their businesses and their needs" said Ms Fistek from EIHP

The call for tenders is open

The Croatian Post e-bike tender is open and they looked forward to receiving a healthy number of bids, said Rzewnicki. He noted that the standards the company needs to meet are high: The tender requires a 2-year guarantee  and the batteries must have capacity for 800 re-charges. "So they expect to have low maintenance costs over that period."

The purchase price will exceed €400,000 and 40% of it will come from Croatian government Green Fund to promote clean technology. 

Ms Fistek explained the scheme to ECF. It's called the Croatian Environment protection and Energy Efficiency Fund.   In order to contribute to better environment and promote clean vehicles the Fund supported purchases by  local governments, enterprises and individual citizens. They finance up to 80% depending on the applicant's status and area of the country. After the first call for co-financing in 2014, a second call was announced in February 2015. The applications are now closed since the funds are already committed. "This clearly shows the immense interest in such vehicles," she concluded.

"For electric vehicles in the capital Zagreb the government would pay 20% of the cost and for rural areas they would pay 80% of the cost. In the end Croatian Post will put the bikes in every county across the country and the final subsidy will be 40% of the budget", Rzewnicki explained.

 The 180 E-bikes will be delivered in the fall and be fully deployed in early 2016. "They will replace 180 conventionally powered scooters currently in use, which is great news for the Croatian Post and for all of us in the project",  Rzewnicki said.

The tender is published here http://ted.europa.eu/TED/main/HomePage.do  and closes on 28 May 2015.

 About the author

Randy Rzewnicki, PhD. has a wealth of experience in the world of cycling having previously worked with Fietsersbond Brussel (Brussel’s Cyclist Union) and a range of other EU funded Projects such as Switch, Bike2Work, CycleLogistics & LifeCycle. He is currently co-managing the Pro-E-bike Project, which promotes moving urban freight by cycle.

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