Congratulations Germany: € 2500 purchase premium when buying an Armadillo!
Today we congratulate our existing and coming customers in Germany on the purchase premium on commercial, high capacity electric cargo bikes that went into effect today. Electric cargo bikes with a minimum cargo capacity of 150 kg and 1 m3 are eligible for the premium, and the Armadillo do have this capacity.
This comes only days after the “diesel ban” story. This means we can not only congratulate our customers, but also all people living in German cities! You will now get cleaner air, lower noise levels, less traffic barriers, less congestion and more faces. And everyone on earth will benefit as a high capacity electric assist cargo bike only uses a few percent of the energy and resources a van uses, electric or ICE, when doing the same transport work. Thus we increase our chances to meet the 1,5 degree global warming target.
The Armadillo electric cargo bike is designed with bike paths and other cyclists in mind, minimising negative impact with its width of only 86 cm, advanced full suspension to allow for keeping up with other cyclists and low total height which allow other cyclists to keep their traffic overview. It was called a “mix of bicycle, go-kart and van” by the Berliner Morgenpost, which we think is an excellent description of this vehicle!
In a perfect world, this subsidy would not be needed. Subsidies are a sign of that something is wrong, and they can never be designed justly, someone will always be just outside the scope of the subsidy. If sound decisions would have been taken the last decades, cars and vans would carry the real environmental cost they cause, would not be subsidized and bike infrastructure would be on par with car infrastructure. But that is not the case, and until then we will happily accept this subsidy.
