Public administration in Hamburg-Bergedorf is testing e-bikes

Employees of the municipal administration in Hamburg-Bergedorf had the chance to test brandnew and innovative passenger e-bikes as well as an e-cargo bike. Hamburg is Lighthouse City for smart city solutions and Bergedorf one of the demonstration districts of the mySMARTLife project and therefore selected to promote e-mobility services in their city. One major activity is to renew and electrify Bergedorf’s public fleet with e-cars and e-bikes. The project partner VW provided the passenger e-bikes.

The staff was thoroughly enjoying being e-bike test-drivers. They were invited to test the handling of three passenger e-bikes. With a weight of 25,5 kg and an engine assistance until a speed of up to 25 km/h, people had to get used to a different “riding-experience”. The battery which weighs 2,8 kg has a range of 100 km, but it has to be recharged for 3-4 hours – this requires a good planning The integrated luggage box in which a laptop and helmet can be stored was found very useful. A special feature is an electronic secure lock that can be opened via an app. For use cases where employees have to transport more than a laptop or helmet, a cargo bike was tested, too. Here, most test-users were surprised by the easy handling.

The public administration envisages launching a call for tenders to allocate e-bikes for its staff. Currently, a survey amongst the employees is going on to find out, how many employees are interested in using e-bikes, what distances they are travelling and for what purposes. The results will feed into an analysis and – depending on the costs - the sourcing department has to decide about the amount of e-bikes becoming part of the fleet.