Electric bikes ignored?

When the UK government announced earlier this week it was ring-fencing £43 million for Plug-in Car Grants, there was a mostly positive response from the motor industry.

However, the exclusion of electric motorcycles from the scheme has been met with criticism. The Motor Cycle Industry Association (MCI) is not too happy, and it has already contacted the Department for Transport demanding an explanation for the omission.

Quite rightly, the MCI points out that electric bikes beat congestion better than any car and so reduce journey times. Its stance is that the government should therefore be encouraging them, not ignoring them.

There is already a selection of electric motorcycles and scooters available on the market. These include the Econogo Yogo and the Zero range, with more - such as the KTM Freeride - coming soon. In general, these bikes are more expensive than their petrol-powered counterparts, due mainly to the cost of the batteries. Therefore, some cash from the government would help to narrow the price gap.

But maybe the government feels that as two-wheelers usually emit less CO2 and use less fuel than cars, the benefits of getting riders to switch to electric won’t actually be that great?

Or perhaps it’s a question of economics. One of the objectives of the Plug-in Car Grant is to encourage the development and manufacture of low emissions vehicles within the UK.

With the likelihood that the majority of electric bikes (especially scooters) would come from the Far East, the government may have already determined that including motorcycles will be of little advantage to the UK. And after all, why should it spend taxpayers’ money on grants that effectively subsidise imported products?