In a south-German town the local electricity provider and two local pedelec traders came up with a radical plan to promote the ownership and use of pedelecs in the local community: every buyer of a pedelec gets €250 in his hand.
 

 
The electricity provider of the south-German town Bad Wörishofen (photo left) and two local bicycle shops together donate €250 to everyone who buys a pedelec at the local bicycle shops before 31 May this year.

The offer is open to all citizens of Bad Wörishofen who are also clients of the local electricity provider. With this offer, the town fathers of Bad Wörishofen on the Unterallgäu (foothills of the Alps), hope to promote the popularity and use of pedelecs among the town's 14,600 citizens.

According to the newspaper Augsburger Allgemeine, Helmut Vater, head of the local electricity provider, wants to build awareness of e-mobility in general and specifically the use of pedelecs as an alternative to the automobile with the offer.

The two bicycle shops Osswald Bürotechnik & Fahrrad and Zweirad Trübenbacher and local electricity provider, together "donate" €250 in the form of a discount on the prices of the pedelecs, which may lie somewhere between €2,000 and €3,000.

According to Vater, pedelecs are especially useful in the hilly region of the Unterallgäu, where cyclists are confronted with many, long inclines. He hopes citizens will leave their cars at home more often and opt for the pedelec also for longer distances, since they do not have to rely on their own muscle power, but are assisted by an electric motor.

In Bad Wörishofen cyclists undertaking long trips may exchange empty batteries for charged batteries at Osswald Bürotechnik & Farrad. Other towns on the Allgäu also offer rental stations for batteries, where batteries can be exchanged by cyclists on longer trips.

It seems as if Vater's initiative might be rewarded. According to Josef Trübenbacher, owner of the shop Zweirad Trübenbacher, the citizens are responding positively to the offer and "demand is above average in Bad Wörishofen".