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The Greens demand subsidies for private cargo bikes as well.

To ensure parity with the promotion of electric cars, the Greens propose a purchase premium of 1,000 euros for cargo bikes. Previous federal funding scarcely in demand.

The supplier fahrrad.de is also taking into account the boom in cargo bikes and will soon offer its own e-cargobike in addition to shipping. | Photo: Internetstores
The supplier fahrrad.de is also taking into account the boom in cargo bikes and will soon offer its own e-cargobike in addition to shipping. | Photo: Internetstores
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Johannes Reichel

The Green Party has proposed a 1,000 Euro subsidy for the purchase of cargo bikes as a car replacement also for the private sector in the federal election campaign. There should be no "inequality" compared to the subsidy of 6,000 Euros for electric cars, reaffirmed Green Party chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock in the ARD summer interview. With a cargo bike, even people without a driver's license or car could transport their groceries, said the Green Party co-chair.

The federal subsidy for commercially used cargo bikes by companies, municipalities, or associations, however, is hardly in demand, as an inquiry by Green Party budget politician Sven-Christian Kindler revealed. According to him, only 887 bikes have been subsidized by the federal government in the past three years. However, there are also numerous local and regional subsidy programs, mostly for commercially used cargo bikes. "Clean mobility does not come free of charge," Kindler explained to the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND). In his view, cargo bikes, particularly with electric assistance, play a central role in the mobility transition, for instance for craftsmen and small entrepreneurs. Rental systems for e-cargo bikes and the promotion of their purchase for families are also insufficiently supported.

"The Federal Minister of Transport prefers to spend his term dealing with the toll disaster, the chaos at the Autobahn GmbH, and the construction of Bavarian roads," Kindler criticized.

In contrast, families wanting to purchase a cargo bike are left out in the rain. A new federal government must change that and invest significantly more in the mobility transition from the fall onwards.

Criticism of the proposal came as expected from the CDU/CSU, but also from the FDP and the Left Party. CSU deputy parliamentary group leader Ulrich Lange pointed out that the majority of people live in rural areas and would gain nothing from the proposal, stating that cargo bikes only make sense in urban areas. FDP transport politician Oliver Luksic referred to the approximately 100 subsidy funds from the federal government, states, and municipalities according to his knowledge and called for more targeted funding. The Left Party's parliamentary group leader Amira Mohamed Ali also criticized the initiative and argued that such a subsidy would practically help no one in rural regions. Trying to kickstart the mobility transition with a cargo bike subsidy is a dead end, she argued, advocating instead for the expansion of public transport and cheaper tickets. In any case, e-cargo bikes in particular are currently extremely popular, with numerous well-known manufacturers entering production, and delivery times being long.

Translated automatically from German.
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