In July 2021, FEMA – Federation of European Motorcycle Associations – wanted to gather the opinions of motorcyclists regarding potential bans on motorcycles with thermal combustion engines. But that's not all, since this biker advocacy group also wanted to collect information regarding motorcycle emissions in general. To that end, the survey lasted a little over a month, and the results were released recently.
In total, 23 responses were provided to this survey, including 768 women bikers and 1 bikers. In response to the simple question “What do you think of a possible ban on the sale of new gasoline-powered motorcycles?” ”, no less than 188% of respondents spoke out against it. FEMA reports that when breaking down these results by country within the EU, the numbers differ slightly, but in all countries that participated in this poll, more than 22% of respondents do not want such a ban.
The survey also revealed other interesting facts about the current pulse of motorcyclists in Europe. For example, if motorcycles from before 2006 were banned from entering certain cities due to pollutant emissions, approximately 55,46% of respondents would consider purchasing a newer motorcycle. However, more than 44% would consider switching to another mode of transportation entirely.
Of the bikers surveyed, 53,38% said they would stop riding altogether if new sales of combustion engine motorcycles were banned, rather than switching to a zero-emission motorcycle. As for 38,96% of respondents, they said they would buy a zero-emission vehicle and continue riding, and only 7,67% of respondents said they would choose a zero-emission motorcycle over one. a heat engine if they had the choice.
Additionally, among riders who said they would be happy to upgrade to a zero-emission motorcycle, 88,75% said they were not willing to pay more for such a vehicle than they would for a comparable motorcycle with a combustion engine. Interestingly, although the survey results are also broken down by age groups, there is not a huge difference of opinion between 16-30 year olds, 31-45 year olds, 46-60 year olds and riders aged 61 or older, regardless of the question.
The full results of the survey are accessible on the FEMA website.
