The Italian government has decided to extend incentives for bicycles and e-bikes and expects that the funds will lead to the purchase of 120,000 new units. The environment ministry said that that it will add €10 million to finance the incentives after the previously allotted €8.75 million was spent. The ministry said that about 60,000 requests for incentives that have already been lodged will all be honored.
The incentive program has proven to be so successful that the server operated by the bank Unicredit to manage the inflow of applications went on the blink on May 7 because of the excessive number of retailers connected. The system resumed working on the afternoon of May 12 but retailers have been complaining that the system continues to seize up.
Incentives are helping boost consumption after Italian bicycle sales are estimated to have fallen to 1.6-1.7 million units in 2008 from nearly 2.0 million in 2007, largely due to the economic slowdown. Italy is a leading European manufacturer of bicycles, with a production of about 2.38 million in 2008.
In June 2007, the Italian government launched incentives worth a total €15 million for the purchase of bicycles, e-bikes and more environmentally friendly motorbikes in exchange for the scrapping of old motorbikes. But the program was considered too complex, especially for bicycle retailers, and not all the funds were used. The environment minister, Stefania Prestigiacomo, agreed on Dec. 23 with the trade associations ANCMA (representing manufacturers of bicycles and motorbikes) and CEI CIVES (representing producers of electrical vehicles) to employ the unused funds for a new incentive package.
On April 22, the ministry reintroduced a new incentive program, with initial funding of €8.75 million, which no longer required the scrapping of an old motorbike for the purchase of a bicycle or e-bike. The government is offering a contribution worth 30 percent of the price tag price of a bicycle or e-bike up to a maximum of €700.
The government also renewed incentives for motorbikes but the applicant still has to scrap a motorbike to obtain them. The contributions vary from 8 percent to 30 percent of the price tag according to the type of engine, with maximum thresholds ranging from €180 to €1,300. The highest incentive levels are for vehicles with electric engines and the lowest to motorcycles with two-stroke combustion engines.
According to the site tracking the applications for incentives (www.incentivimotocicli.it.), 99.53 percent of the original €8.75 million was spent to buy bicycles. Males represented 80.87 percent of the applicants for bicycle incentives and females 19.13 percent.
