This is not the first time she has heard this argument but she says I am looking at it wrong. The e-bike is an attempt to replace your car, not your bike, and, besides, there is still a degree of gentle exercise involved in piloting one of these machines. Clare identifies an e-bike as a bike with more, while an electric car is a car with less (having driven a Citroën C-Zero two years ago, I can certainly testify to that). They are passionate in their devotion to the machines they sell and believe they can change the world for the better. Therefore, they find the situation with grants deeply frustrating – while electric cars come with a massive subsidy, their two-wheeled equivalents get none. Many firms, she says, would like to replace their vehicles with a fleet of bikes, but the cost is prohibitive.