The bike bonus will be 500 euros and can be used to purchase bikes, electric scooters and other vehicles for personal mobility. Here's how it works
Alternative mobility is the future we have to get used to. At least the government is convinced of it and has decided to allocate a fund of 120-150 million euros in the decree of May that allows a bonus of 500 euros on the purchase of pedal assisted bicycles, electric scooters and any type of electric vehicle that can help people to move and go to work.
The bonus bicycle, as it has been renamed in these days, was born as an alternative to public transport, which in this period and most likely in the future, will travel at reduced speed to respect the social distancing. Never before have electric scooters, pedal-assisted bicycles and personal mobility vehicles been so useful. But how will the 500 euro bonus for electric bikes and scooters work? To whom is it addressed? And above all, in which cities will it be valid?
How does the 500 euro bike bonus work
Still there is no official text that explains perfectly how it works with the 500 euro bonus for bicycles and electric scooters. The Minister of Transport Paola De Micheli in a hearing at the Chamber of Deputies explained in broad strokes how the Bicycle Bonus will be. The fund created by the Ministry should have in its belly from 120 to 150 million euros and should discount between 70% of the purchase value of the vehicle for personal mobility.
This means that for electric scooters that cost 300-350 euros, the bonus will not cover all the expense, but only 70%.
What will be the requirements to receive the 500 euro bonus? The discount will affect all citizens, without any difference in income. The bonus, however, will be active only for those who live in cities with more than 50 thousand inhabitants. A clause that would exclude the millions of people who live in the hinterland of big cities, in municipalities that in most cases do not exceed 15,000 inhabitants, but that every day they move with the means of transport to go to work in Rome, Milan, Naples, Turin, Genoa, Palermo, just to name a few cities.
How will the bicycle bonus work operationally? Two different hypotheses are being studied: the first provides for the payment in full of the means and then the citizen uploads the invoice or the receipt on an ad hoc platform. The second, however, follows the model of the Bonus TV: the citizen pays the electric vehicle already discounted and then the dealer carries out the procedure for reimbursement.
What you can buy with the bonus bike from 500 euros
In the hearing at the House, the Minister of Transport has spoken generically of "bicycles, including pedal assisted, vehicles for personal mobility with predominantly electric propulsion, and scooters". Therefore, the 500 euro bonus can be used for the purchase of a new bicycle, preferably with pedal assistance, scooters, hoverboards, segways and electric monowheel.
When will the 500 euro bicycle bonus be active
The bicycle bonus will be active after the approval of the May decree that allocates 55 billion to restart the economy. According to the latest rumors, it should be valid for all purchases made after May 4, but for the moment there is no officialdom. Certainly it will be active by mid-May 2020
.