Only 23% of Gov e-bike vouchers have been used

Sunday 25 June 2023

Less than a quarter of Government-issued e-bike vouchers – which islanders can use to subsidise the purchase of an electric bike – have actually been used since the subsidy began in January.

This figure is "less than we would have liked", according to Assistant Environment Minister Hilary Jeune – and the Environment Department is planning to survey recipients to find out why they did or did not use their vouchers.

Under the scheme, which started in January, islanders can apply for vouchers worth £300 (for regular e-bikes) or £600 (for e-cargo bikes or adapted e-cycles), which they can spend at a range of bike shops across the island.

The scheme's aim is for islanders to move away from using petrol and diesel vehicles.

So far, there have been two rounds of grants awarded. During each round, the total value of the vouchers was £74,400 – totalling £148,800 for the year so far.

In January, there were 1,800 applications and 210 grants were awarded while in April, 165 grants were awarded out of 1,300 applications.

But only 85 vouchers have been redeemed so far.

The vouchers are valid for three months, after which they expire.

Pictured: Assistant Environment Minister, Deputy Hilary Jeune.

Deputy Jeune said: "Any that are not used before they expire, after three months, go back into the pot to be reallocated during a future quarterly release.

"It's therefore anticipated that all vouchers will ultimately be redeemed, and the full allocation of funding will be distributed to support islanders in making the switch to low carbon methods of transport."

In light of these figures, the Infrastructure and Environment department will survey recipients of the vouchers, whether they redeemed them or not.

Deputy Jeune said: "We'll soon be sending a survey to those who've used their vouchers, to get a sense of their usage and behavioural change. We'll also be contacting those who were successful in the ballot but decided not to take advantage of the voucher, to establish what the barriers were for them.

"We need to better understand the behaviour, and then use that information to evolve the scheme, closing the gap between the excellent number of applicants and the number of e-bikes being purchased, which is lower than we'd have liked.

"The scheme received over 1,800 applications in January and over 1,300 in April, and we expect similarly high levels of applications will be received next month in the next window."

The next round of applications is expected to open in July.