UK government confirms continuation of electric motorcycle grant
The British government will continue the grant scheme for electric bikes, but there remain several issues with the viability of electrics in Britain.
The UK government has confirmed the electric bike grant will continue, after the similar version for electric cars was cancelled.
The cancellation of the grant for electric cars was cause for some concern about the future of the electric motorcycle grant, but instead it is now appearing that there is some possibility that the money saved from the scrapping of the car grant could be used in schemes for other modes of transport, as reported by the British Motorcyclists Federation (BMF).
There are a number of reasons behind the continuation of the grants for motorcycles and vans, for example, while the car grant has been scrapped.
But, the main reason is that people are willing to buy electric cars even without the grant, because they are becoming increasingly popular. The BMF reports that electric car sales make up for a quarter of all car sales in the UK, while for motorcycles the market share is more like five per cent for electrics.
That number is increasing, though, at the moment, and surely the continuation of the government grant scheme for electric motorcycles will help that percentage to continue to rise, even if the incentive was reduced for higher-powered electrics at the end of last year.
“Having successfully kickstarted the electric car market, we now want to use plug-in grants to match that success across other vehicle types, from taxis to delivery vans and everything in between, to help make the switch to zero emission travel cheaper and easier,” said the Under-Secretary of State for Transport, Trudy Harrison.
Despite the continuation of the grant, however, the critical problems surrounding electric vehicles remain. These include the public charging infrastructure which, mixed with concerns about range that many people share about electric vehicles, make them often unviable, especially for people who do not live in cities.
“While any grant seems like a nice idea, in reality it’s not really a decision-making amount,” said BMF Chair, Jim Freeman. “The real issues with bigger battery bikes remain charging infrastructure and range anxiety, as well as cost. Smaller Powered Two-Wheelers with removable batteries remain a very attractive option, particularly for urban users.”
