A SCHEME which provided additional credit for subscribers to use when hiring electric cars, vans or bikes performed “very much under target”, the Assistant Environment Minister has revealed.
During a quarterly hearing of the Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel yesterday, Deputy Hilary Jeune, the minister with responsibility for tackling climate change, said that only 71 Islanders had used the scheme, a figure which fell far below the target of 500.
This was despite the government spending £5,000 on marketing, a sum which Deputy Jeune described as “substantial”.
Deputy Steve Luce, chair of the panel, described the figures as a “really serious shortfall in our expectations” and demanded answers from the assistant minister.
Under the pilot scheme, the government had partnered with EVie, the on-demand, shared mobility platform, to provide additional credit for subscribers to use on electric car, van and bike hire, with the aim of encouraging Islanders to make more use of low-carbon methods of transport.
Between August and November last year, Islanders could purchase £25 of credit and receive an extra £75, giving them a total of £100 (£50 from government and £25 from EVie).
The credit, which lasted for a month, could be used for trips in many of EVie’s cars and vans, and on the yellow e-bikes.
Deputy Jeune said that it was “too early” to identify the reason for the scheme’s poor take-up but that analysis was needed to assess what could be improved.
She added: “It’s important to remember this was only a trial, and a test, to see the appetite of the Jersey public to a subscription-based model.
“We need more analysis to know whether that means it’s too early for changes of habit like this among the wider Jersey public.”
A total of £25,000 from the Climate Emergency Fund was allocated to the scheme, along with £12,500 in credit from EVie.
