On your bike

E-bikes could play an important role in lowering carbon emissions but the challenges will be affordability and providing enough cycleways.

- RUSSELL BROWN

When Stefan Atkinson had a modest financial windfall a couple of years ago, he could have bought a used car. Instead, he plumped for an NCM Milano city e-bike. But he wanted to carry more, so then came the cargo bike, a Radkutsche Rapid, which now occupies the car park in the Kāinga Ora home he shares with his partner, Ngawini Hohaia.

For Hohaia, it was a significant step up from her unpowered bike. "I said, 'I'm not going back to a normal bike anymore," she recalls. "It's just awesome."

When that bike was stolen, they used the insurance payout to upgrade to a fat-tyred ET.Cycle T1000. The latest addition to the family is a Boostbikes Scout 750, which has a 750-watt motor and requires a licence to ride. "Typical journeys are shopping and pleasure rides," says Atkinson. "We don't own a car so we cycle everywhere. It's a shitload of fun. And we don't burn fossil fuels."

Atkinson and Hohaia were able to fund their own purchases, but when the government revealed its first Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) last month, an interesting fact emerged. Its scrap-and-replace scheme - a big-ticket item to help low-income families replace their dirty old cars with low-emission vehicles - could also be used to help buy e-bikes. Not that the government seemed especially keen to advertise this fact.