Are electric bikes and scooters the future of transport after coronavirus? (Or will it just be cars?)

This is Money Podcast

This is Money

Business News, Business, Investing, News

4.1 • 650 Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2020

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Since lockdown began in March, there has been a huge uptick in cycling and walking, as people got out and about while staying at home.

But while before coronavirus we were all told public transport was a good thing, now with restrictions easing and Britain slowly going back to work, Britons have been told to actively avoid it.

Does that mean the inevitable return of the car, or with the Government promising billions to create a new era for cycling and walking, is there a brighter and greener future for mobility

Could one of the keys be electric bicycles and scooters? Editor Simon Lambert reveals all to host Georgie Frost and assistant editor Lee Boyce after giving a GoCycle GX folding electric bike a trial.

How good are the batteries, how long do they take to charge, how much do they cost, what schemes are available to purchase them and what is the point of them?

Meanwhile, the car industry has been rocked by Covid-19, with job losses aplenty and sales grinding to a halt.

Registrations sank 89 per cent to the record-lowest May since 1952, but despite that, sales of electric vehicles were up 22 per cent – and the Tesla Model 3 was the best seller.

Could it be time to head to a showroom to haggle a bargain, will there be yet another scrappage scheme and why has Fiat launched a pay-as-you-go model of ownership?

This weekend could also be a good time to fill up, with petrol prices set to head higher after weeks of lower motoring costs: many Britons have been able to find unleaded for under £1 a litre.

And finally, with more people using their cars to make deliveries, are they properly insured?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to This Is Money. I'm Georgie Frost and alongside editor Simon Lambert. Me today is Assistant
0:05.5	Editor Lee Boyce. And last week, it was all about holidays. This week, as lockdown eases car show
0:11.8	rooms are reopened, we're going mobile. The government's announced a plan to get us off public
0:17.7	transport, not mandatory face masks, by the way. It's a two billion package to create a new era, apparently for cycling and walking.
0:25.5	Simon thinks he's found a key to make this work from electric bikes to electric cars.
0:31.7	New registrations were up last one as petrol and diesel vehicles tanked.
0:36.4	With the new scrapage scheme reportedly on the cards is now
0:39.2	the time to bag a bargain. Plus, do you need special insurance to become a delivery driver?
0:45.0	Don't forget you start to date. With all the latest breaking money news, just go to this ismoney.com.
0:49.0	UK or download the app. But firstly, face masks on public transport, normal money to get us walking and
0:55.6	cycling, working from home, standard times into the office, a short-term fix to a current problem
1:00.7	or a longer-term change in the way Britain works. Lee, what do you reckon? I think we are going to see
1:08.2	some big changes, Georgie. Often a big seismic event like this does, you know, held an era of change.
1:14.6	And I wonder if that's what's going to happen.
1:16.6	That's going to be one of the impacts of coronavirus, you know, in the future.
1:20.6	Will we be seeing more people, you know, maybe put off making those trips on public transport?
1:25.6	You know, maybe those short hops on a bus or where they
1:29.0	can just try and avoid it because worries over, you know, having to wear face masks. You know,
1:34.0	it's much better to be out in the open air. That's what I reckon a lot of people will be feeling
1:37.7	like, you know, where it's realistic and where it's possible. So I think that we will see
1:43.9	much more cycling and walking in the longer term.
1:47.7	But I think short term, I think a lot of people, you know,
	...

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