A huge funding increase for the cyclists group SLF, and a high rate of E-car sales. ECF’s Benjamin McEldowney explains the Nordic secrets of success.

 ECF’s Norwegian member association, SyklistenesLandsforening (SLF) brought us tidings of great joy at their recent visit to our offices in Brussels. They came looking for information about how to boost E-bike use in Norway – which we were happy to provide. But they gave us a positive news and experience too.

 The first great piece of news was that their funding has been increased by 1 million NKK, about 100,000€. Next was that they received 100,000€ to study how to boost E-bike use. A third surprise was that they’re working together with industry on that. And then we learned that the Norwegian government seems to have found the secret that many other European governments seek: How to sell e-cars. This “secret” is something that could well be useful for promoting cycling. 

 SLF’s funding boost came as part of the latest government budget. With direct funding increased to NKK 2.5 million (€300,000), there is evidence of a concerted push by politicians to improve cycling in Norway. SLF also expects up to NKK 100 milliion (€11.8m) in funding to be made available to match investments in cycling infrastructure from local administrations.

 The ECF was delighted to welcome SLF’s Hulda Tronstad to its offices in Brussels for consultation on an upcoming collaboration with Elbilforenigen, The Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association, aimed to boost sales and awareness of e-bikes in Norway. The two associations realized that they had plenty of common ground in working for cleaner, quieter, safer cities, and that working together was the best approach for this issue. Although they are both convinced that e-bikes are the way forward for Norway’s cities, steps still need to be taken to deal with public perceptions of the vehicles, including health issues. The ECF provided an overview of the current status of the e-bike in Europe, along with research and market data which will benefit this innovative campaign. Also on the agenda were changes to EU regulations on e-bikes, which the ECF has been instrumental in enacting.

Against trends elsewhere in Europe, Norway has seen a boom in electric car uptake in recent years, with pure electric vehicles representing 12% of all car sales, and hybrids another 8%. This boom has undoubtedly been fostered by government policy. Electric vehicle drivers are exempt from otherwise high taxes on car sales, pay no road tolls or parking fees, and are even permitted to use bus lanes in urban areas. Tronstad explained, however, the greater potential for sales of e-bikes in urban areas, and were keen to learn more about best practice from other European countries where in 2011 e-bikes outsold e-cars by a factor of over 60 to 1. [i]. Hans Håvard Kvisle from Elbilforenigen said, “We already have a success story here – electric vehicles work for people.” The next step is to repeat this success with e-bikes.

SLF’s work on e-bikes has been pre-financed by Trans-norva, a government funding body for sustainable transport initiatives, and is currently focused on collecting best practices from elsewhere in Europe. The project comes in the context of heavy government investment in cycling in Norway - recent white papers have paved the way for an improved network of bicycle paths linking rural communities, and will set aside up to 100 million kroner (€11.8 million) to match local investments on this new infrastructure over the coming 4 years. Recent actions from SyklistenesLandsforening have helped to get government talking about these issues, including successful projects to encourage women to cycle and to help children cycle safely to school.

At the meeting in Brussels, Dr.Randy Rzewnicki, Project Manager for CycleLogistics & PRO-E-BIKE, presented these two projects which focus on the delivery of goods by bicycle and e-bike, and encouraging business to engage with these technologies.  “Our research shows that over 50% of trips made by motor vehicles in EU cities could be switched to bikes. Many of those are shopping trips,” said Rzewnicki.

 Norway is not alone in making a new push for e-bike use. Sweden and the UK have recently been in the news for their innovative approaches. London Mayor Boris Johnson announced the launch of an e-bike hire scheme[ii] in Haringey, one of the British capital’s hilliest boroughs, while the Swedish city of Malmo ran a successful ‘household testing’ scheme where e-bikes, e-cars and e-scooters replaced families’ conventional transport modes. [iii]

 Kevin Mayne, the ECF’s Development Director, presented the current situation in Germany and the Netherlands – two countries where ‘e-bike hype’ has already taken hold. He explained that the conditions in these countries were very conducive to an e-bike boom, with a large proportion of the population in retirement with plenty of disposable income. E-bikes, although expensive, are perfect for to adding range to tourist trips for older cyclists. Recent statistics, however, show a shift towards younger users, with 30-45 year olds now making up nearly half of e-bike users in Germany.[iv][v] Germany now has over 1 million e-bikes in use.