eCargo Bike Grant Fund awarded to local authorities and businesses

Energy Saving Trust announced today that 18 local authorities secured funding from the £2 million eCargo Bike Grant Fund. This fund is available to support the purchase of ecargo bikes operating in England only, the scheme is funded by the Department for Transport and delivered by Energy Saving Trust.

Local authorities across England were invited to bid for up to £200,000 each to purchase ecargo bikes for use by local businesses or deployment within their own fleets. Additionally, funding was allocated through the fund’s national scheme offering limited companies and organisations up to 20% grant funding towards ecargo bikes.

Successful applications to the local authority scheme offer a broad range of initiatives. Cambridgeshire County Council plans to deploy 30 ecargo bikes across four initiatives in Cambridge covering first mile deliveries, a residential sharing scheme, a ‘try before you buy’ leasing scheme and pool ecargo bikes with a combined aim of reducing travel emissions and encouraging active and sustainable transport options.

Devon County Council’s work will encourage the uptake of ecargo bikes across partner organisations to support sustainable active business travel as an alternative to car and van use. 13 ecargo bikes will be used to support Exeter’s ambition for net zero service with two of the total used by the local hospital’s adult and social care teams to help care for the most isolated people in the city.

Tim Anderson, head of transport at Energy Saving Trust, said: “It is exciting to see the strength and breadth of applications supported by the eCargo Bike Grant Fund. We received 58 applications and the 18 local authorities who have been successful in securing funding offered compelling cases for ecargo bikes across a range of activity. These projects will purchase a total of 273 ecargo bikes and nine ecargo bike trailers, enabling more businesses to benefit from access. A further 409 ecargo bikes have been grant funded direct to 146 organisations through the national element of the programme.

“eCargo bikes are an attractive low carbon transport solution that are becoming more widely adopted. They offer significant benefits, most impressively fuel cost savings and contributing to improved local air quality which are particularly attractive as we work towards a green recovery following the Covid-19 outbreak. With more deliveries to our homes than ever, last mile delivery is an important area for consideration in our journey to reduce transport emissions to net zero by 2050. We expect the eCargo Bike Grant Fund to support wider and longer term uptake of these light vehicles.”

Chris Heaton-Harris, Cycling Minister, said: “eCargo bikes are great for not only business but also the environment, helping to lower costs and emissions.

“This funding will see groceries and other shopping delivered to people’s doors by bike instead of vans, helping ensure that as transport increases and we recover from Covid-19, it’ll be cleaner and greener than ever before.”

The full list of 18 local authority recipients is detailed in the table below. Find out more about the eCargo Bike Grant Fund eligibility criteria and code of practice.

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Notes to editors:

eCargo Bike Grant Fund

Funded by the Department for Transport, the £2 million eCargo Bike Grant Fund was open to applications from:

• Local authorities- Up to £200,00 of funding was available to local authorities from the eCargo Bike Grant Fund Local Authority Scheme to purchase ecargo bikes in their area. The money can be used to support up to 100% of the cost of ecargo bikes for local businesses, as well as fund ecargo bikes for use within local authority fleets.
• Limited companies, sole traders, partnerships, charities and not-for-profit organisations operating across England- public, community or third sector organisations were also eligible providing they met the eligibility criteria. eCargo Bike Grant funding covers up to 20% of the total cost of an ecargo bike, up to a maximum of £1,000 per bike for a maximum of 200 ecargo bikes. To be eligible for funding, an ecargo bike must have minimum 125 litre cargo volume capacity and minimum 130 kg weight capacity (combined rider and cargo weight). Case studies of successful applicants Peloton and Ride Clean are available on the project web page.

All eCargo Bike Grant Fund support is conditional on recipients signing up to a robust code of practice, which includes cycle safety best practice, developed in association with the UK Cycle Logistics Federation and the Bicycle Association.

The eCargo Bike Grant Fund allocation breaks down as follows: