A finance director does not need a cost per kilometre; they need a method they can rerun on their own figures. This page sets out which cost items to compare between a fleet of electric cargo bikes and light commercial vehicles in the dense Paris region, what disappears, what appears, and what depends on nothing but your own operations. Every figure carries its source and its vintage, and the state of the law is stated as at 26 July 2026. Wander Fleet is a business introducer: the rental payment is set by the société de crédit-bail (the French finance-lease company) that finances the deal, distinct from Wander, and not by us. No rental amount therefore appears on this page.
You are probably looking for a cost per kilometre. We publish none, and that is a deliberate choice. The available reference sets on cycle logistics and on light commercial vehicles diverge to a considerable degree, cover neither the same terms nor the same annual mileages, and the ones most favourable to the bike publish no methodology beneath their tables. A figure we could not substantiate to your expert-comptable (your French chartered accountant) would be worthless to you, and it would expose us to the charge of pratique commerciale trompeuse (misleading commercial practice under French consumer law). We prefer to publish a method: which items to compare, which disappear, which appear, and which depend on nothing but your own operations.
One clarification, so that you do not have to find it yourself. The September 2023 study we cite elsewhere itself publishes a comparison per kilometre, favourable to the cargo bike. We do not take it up: it rests on the service lives of 40,000 and 200,000 kilometres set out below, and a ratio built on service lives that different does not transfer to your operations. So we deny ourselves a figure that would suit us, for the same reason that makes us publish the ones that do not.
The scope is drawn tightly. We are talking about operations in a dense urban area of the Paris region, on light to medium loads, and short rounds with numerous stops. We do not compare consolidated high-volume uses, long distances, intercity links or the carriage of heavy loads. For those uses a van, combustion or electric, remains the appropriate answer, and we will tell you so before letting you waste time on a field trial that could never have succeeded.
A word on our role, because it governs how everything that follows should be read. Wander Fleet introduces business and supports the rollout. The financing is provided by a société de crédit-bail, distinct from Wander: we present the file to finance houses, without being a party to the financing. Wander grants no financing, collects no funds, is neither a credit institution nor a société de financement (a licensed finance company under French monetary and financial law), is not registered with ORIAS (the French register of banking, insurance and finance intermediaries) and gives no credit advice. Our role is that of an indicateur, the mere-introducer role within the meaning of article R. 519-2, 2° of the code monétaire et financier: putting parties in touch, without advising on or costing a financing arrangement for a given client. The term, the rental payment, the guarantees, the end-of-contract conditions and acceptance of the file are matters for the finance house approached alone. No rental amount therefore appears on this page, and we address no costing to any given client. The simulators on this site are of another nature: self-service tools, on published and editable assumptions, whose results amount to neither an offer nor a costing addressed to anyone.
A comparison only means something within a defined scope. Record the load actually carried at the start of a round, the operating radius, the daily mileage and the number of stops. On light to medium loads in a dense area, the comparison is worth running. Beyond that, the van, electric included, remains the right answer.
Term, annual mileage and the vintage of the data must be identical in both columns. A service life of three years and 40,000 kilometres represents roughly 13,300 kilometres a year, a calculation of our own. Setting that against a reference set built on four years and 100,000 kilometres produces an artificial gap that says nothing about your situation.
Fuel, registration and the certificat qualité de l'air (the Crit'Air air-quality sticker), the taxes annuelles sur l'affectation des véhicules à des fins économiques (the French annual taxes on the use of vehicles for business purposes), which cycles fall outside, and the tax cap on the deduction of rental payments, which is confined to véhicules de tourisme (the French tax category of passenger vehicles). Add the time lost in traffic, which is not an accounting line but is paid for in employee hours.
The rental payment, preventive maintenance, the battery and its replacement at end of life, secure storage, training in handling a loaded bike, and theft insurance. These items are not marginal, and leaving them out is the most frequent flaw in the comparisons published on this subject.
The lease calculator on our site remains available to you, and it is you who operate it, on your own assumptions as to equipment and term. Its results are indicative and non-contractual, produced outside any financing offer, and constitute neither an offer, nor a proposal, nor a promise of financing. We do not cost a monthly payment on your behalf: the term, the rental payment, the guarantees and acceptance of the file are set by the société de crédit-bail that finances the deal, distinct from Wander.
Three comparison columns, set against each item, are enough to frame the decision: what you pay today, what you would pay, and what remains to be checked in your own situation before you conclude.
| Item | Light commercial vehicle | Cargo bike fleet | What you must check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fuel or energy | Diesel at 206.64 euro cents a litre including all taxes in the price survey of 17 July 2026, against 164.14 cents in the survey of 18 July 2025, a rise of 25.9% over twelve months | Electric charging. A marginal item that we do not cost, for want of a verifiable reference set | Your actual consumption in dense urban use, and your right to deduct TVA (French value added tax) on fuel |
| Registration and certificat qualité de l'air | Registration, certificat d'immatriculation (the French vehicle registration document), Crit'Air sticker to be displayed | No registration and no Crit'Air sticker for a pedal-assist cycle limited to 25 km/h | Do not transfer this point to a speed pedelec of the 45 km/h type, which is a type-approved and registered vehicle |
| Taxes annuelles sur l'affectation des véhicules | Due if the vehicle falls within one of the three taxable categories of article L. 421-94 of the code des impositions sur les biens et services (the French code of taxes on goods and services) | Outside the scope: a cycle falls within none of those categories. The reasoning runs on the vehicle's category, not on the absence of registration | The exact category of your vehicles and the size of your fleet, the incentive tax targeting fleets of at least one hundred vehicles |
| Tax cap on the deduction of rental payments | For véhicules de tourisme taken on rental, the lessee adds back the portion of the rental payment corresponding to the depreciation charged by the lessor on the part of the acquisition price exceeding the caps of article 39, 4 of the code général des impôts (the French general tax code). A vehicle taken on rental is not depreciated by the lessee: it is the lessor that depreciates it | Not applicable: a cycle is not a véhicule de tourisme; its rental payments come under ordinary rules | Your vehicles' emission figure and the registration scheme that applies to them |
| Maintenance | Mechanical servicing, tyres, contrôle technique (the French roadworthiness test) | Preventive maintenance to be scheduled, carried out by a third-party provider | The exact scope of the contract, its term, and who performs it |
| Battery | Not applicable | An item specific to the bike: charge cycles, replacement at end of life, warranty conditions | The length of the warranty and whether it covers professional use |
| Storage | Parking space or depot | Secure premises and anchoring. For want of any reference set on company fleet storage, the only order of magnitude available concerns cycle logistics platforms of 150 to 800 square metres, at between 30 and 80 euros per square metre per year depending on the city, in a study of September 2023. Not transferable as it stands to a simple storage room | Your available floor area, your lease and your theft insurance |
| Training and familiarisation | Permis B (the French category B driving licence) already held by your employees | Familiarisation with a loaded cargo bike. A new item, to be budgeted for | The time your employees spend off the road |
| Accounting treatment of the rental payment | According to the ownership arrangement chosen | Crédit-bail payments on movable property booked as expenses of the period in account 6122 of the plan comptable général (the French general chart of accounts), the asset not being carried on the lessee's balance sheet until the purchase option is exercised, if it ever is | The nature of the contract offered by the société de crédit-bail, simple rental or crédit-bail: the regimes differ |
| Round time | 9.6 km/h average traffic speed for cars in Paris intra-muros (inner Paris) in 2025 | Riding on cycle infrastructure | The time actually spent on your own routes. We publish no quantified productivity gain |
This table is a checklist, not a costing. The amounts cited carry their vintage: diesel from the price survey of Friday 17 July 2026, cycle logistics platform rents from a study of September 2023, traffic speed from the bilan des déplacements 2025 published on 15 July 2026. No Wander rental payment appears in it: that depends on the finance house approached, on the term and on the equipment.
On load, the order of magnitude to keep in mind is not the maximum advertised. In the Panorama de la cyclologistique en France published in September 2023 by Les Boîtes à Vélo - France, with the support of ADEME (the French environment and energy agency) and of the ministère de la Transition écologique, so data that is almost three years old, the preferred use goes up to 300 kilogrammes at the start of a round, but the average maximum payload across the fleet of two-wheel front-loaders used for parcel delivery is given there as 115 kilogrammes. Promising 300 kilogrammes without saying so would amount to promising a capacity that most machines do not have.
On service life, that same study of September 2023 takes 40,000 kilometres for a cargo bike against 200,000 kilometres for a light commercial vehicle, and states that this gap strongly influences the results. We publish it because it counts against us, and because a comparison that leaves it out is not a comparison. That same study puts couriers at around 46 kilometres a day, which tells you the kind of duty cycle the decision actually turns on.
On productivity, we publish no quantified gain. The available work concerns other cities, other operators and other vintages, and its transfer to your rounds is not demonstrated. What is established, recent and specific to the Paris region is structural: the average annual traffic speed for cars in Paris intra-muros fell to 9.6 kilometres per hour in 2025, below the ten kilometres per hour mark for the first time, according to the bilan des déplacements published by the Ville de Paris on 15 July 2026. The rest is measured on your own routes, not on a brochure.
What is in force. Article 220 undecies A of the code général des impôts gives companies subject to the impôt sur les sociétés (French corporate income tax) a tax reduction equal to the costs incurred, up to 31 December 2027, in making a fleet of bikes available free of charge to their employees for their journeys between home and the workplace. Those costs are taken into account up to a limit of 25 per cent of the purchase or rental price of that fleet. The 25 per cent rate is therefore not applied to the costs: it is a cap based on the price of the fleet.
Two points decide the actual amount. The doctrine published on 8 January 2025 states that the 25 per cent limit is assessed per purchase or per rental, and not per financial year: announcing 25 per cent every year would overstate the tax saving. The price is understood inclusive of all taxes, the benefit is open from the first bike with no fleet threshold, companies subject to the impôt sur le revenu (French personal income tax) are excluded, and any fraction not set off is neither refundable nor capable of being carried forward. Where the fleet is rented, the three-year minimum term of the contract is not a requirement of administrative doctrine: it is written into the statute, in the second paragraph of I of article 220 undecies A of the code général des impôts.
What is unsettled. The doctrine mentions neither crédit-bail nor location avec option d'achat (a French lease carrying a purchase option, see the box below), neither to include them nor to exclude them: it speaks only of a rental contract taken out with a rental company. So we do not assert that a crédit-bail on movable property satisfies the statutory three-year condition. The point deserves to be settled with your expert-comptable, if need be by a rescrit (a binding advance ruling from the French tax authorities) on the basis of article L. 80 B of the livre des procédures fiscales, before you commit to an investment on the strength of this advantage.
TVA, finally. Vehicles or machines designed to carry people or for mixed use are excluded from the right of deduction, and the tax administration confines the deduction to cycles whose fittings evidence a design exclusively for carrying goods, giving as its example a two-wheel front-loader with a flat deck or a tipping box. It is not obvious that the models we introduce fall within that exception, and we do not assert that they do. We cost inclusive of all taxes. We never announce a combination of the tax reduction and the TVA deduction: the reduction requires that the bikes be provided free of charge, and it is that free provision which closes off the right of deduction.
These elements describe the state of the law as at 26 July 2026 and do not constitute tax advice. The versions in force of article 39 of the code général des impôts and of article L. 421-1 of the code des impositions sur les biens et services show an end of version on 1 September 2026, and the tax reduction covers costs incurred up to 31 December 2027. No extension can be taken for granted. This page will be reviewed at both of those deadlines and on publication of the next loi de finances (the annual French budget act).
The word leasing is a market term, not a category of French law. The transaction we introduce is a crédit-bail within the meaning of article L. 313-7 of the code monétaire et financier: a société de crédit-bail buys the bikes, rents them to you for a fixed term, and the contract carries a purchase option that you remain free to exercise or not at maturity.
The distinction is not cosmetic. It is the purchase option that separates crédit-bail from simple rental, and it carries its own accounting and tax consequences, to be examined with your expert-comptable. We use the word leasing because it is the one you use, and the word crédit-bail whenever the legal characterisation matters.
Paid parking for vans. In Paris, light low-emission vehicles whose masse en service, in the Ville de Paris's own wording, is 2,000 kilogrammes or less park free of charge on all on-street paid spaces, with no time limit and no parking disc. Against an electric van whose mass stays at or below two tonnes, the parking difference is nil. Above that threshold the exemption does not apply, and many electric vans exceed it: this is a point to check on your vehicles' spec sheets, not an argument to wield in general terms. As a benchmark, the Ville de Paris charges 240 euros per year per vehicle for the carte PRO Mobile plus 0.50 euro per hour for seven consecutive hours, and 45 euros per year plus 1.50 euro per day for the carte PRO Sédentaire, both cards being free for low-emission vehicles. We do not enter this item in a comparison, and we invite you to set aside any sales pitch that does.
The cost per kilometre of a van put at around fifty cents and attributed to ADEME. We do not use it: we have not found that figure in the document it is credited to. More generally, we do not attribute to a public agency the figures of a study whose author is an association. The Panorama de la cyclologistique en France of September 2023 was produced by Les Boîtes à Vélo - France, with the support of ADEME and of the ministère de la Transition écologique et de la Cohésion des territoires.
A quoted rental payment, and proof by example. Wander Fleet is a business introducer: the rental payment, the term, the guarantees and acceptance of the file are matters for the société de crédit-bail that finances the deal, distinct from Wander, and we therefore publish no amount. Nor do we address a personalised costing to you: our role as indicateur within the meaning of article R. 519-2, 2° of the code monétaire et financier stops at the introduction. The simulators on the site are of another nature, self-service on published and editable assumptions. Nor does this page contain any client case study, any figure for a deployed fleet or any saving presented as achieved. What we offer you is a method you can check line by line, not a testimonial.
It depends on a scope of use you have to pin down before you cost anything, and we publish no cost per kilometre: the available reference sets diverge too widely and the ones most favourable to the bike publish no methodology. What can be verified is the items that disappear, such as fuel, registration, the taxes annuelles sur l'affectation des véhicules and the tax cap on the deduction of rental payments, and the items that appear, such as the rental payment, preventive maintenance, the battery, secure storage and training. On light to medium loads in a dense area, the comparison is worth running. Beyond that, the van, electric included, remains the right answer.
Because we do not set it. Wander Fleet is a business introducer and supports the rollout: the financing is provided by a société de crédit-bail, distinct from Wander, and we present the file to finance houses without being a party to the financing. Wander grants no financing, collects no funds, is neither a credit institution nor a société de financement, is not registered with ORIAS and gives no credit advice. Our role is that of an indicateur within the meaning of article R. 519-2, 2° of the code monétaire et financier. The term, the rental payment, the guarantees, the end-of-contract conditions and acceptance of the file are matters for the finance house approached alone. The lease calculator on this site is a tool you operate yourself: its results are indicative and non-contractual, produced outside any financing offer, and constitute neither an offer, nor a proposal, nor a promise of financing.
No, and that refusal is deliberate. Wander Fleet is not registered with ORIAS and keeps to the role of indicateur within the meaning of article R. 519-2, 2° of the code monétaire et financier: putting parties in touch, without advising on or costing a financing arrangement for a given client. What we do is a usage and equipment study, on your actual rounds, your actual loads and your actual storage constraints, then the presentation of your file to finance houses. The costing, the offer and the decision are theirs. The lease calculator on the site remains available and you operate it yourself, on your own assumptions: a self-service tool is not a costing we address to you, and its results constitute neither an offer, nor a proposal, nor a promise of financing.
There is one benchmark, and it has to be read for what it is. In its press release of 2 December 2025 on the renewal of Véligo Location, Île-de-France Mobilités announces professional cargo bikes designed for tradespeople, the self-employed or local authorities. That release shows 88 euros per month for a cargo bike aimed at private individuals, and no price for the professional models. We therefore take up no professional price: the trade press quoted one at the June 2026 launch, but the primary source does not confirm it, and we do not publish a price we cannot tie to an official document. Above all, note the status of this offer: a delegated and subsidised regional public service, which is neither a Wander offer nor an enforceable market price, and which cannot serve as a basis for price comparison. We cite it because your teams will come across it, and because it is better to know exactly what it is.
No, and this is the most frequent mistake about this scheme. Article 220 undecies A of the code général des impôts grants a tax reduction equal to the costs incurred in making a fleet of bikes available free of charge to employees for their home-to-work journeys, those costs being taken into account up to a limit of 25 per cent of the purchase or rental price of the fleet, that price being understood inclusive of all taxes. The doctrine published on 8 January 2025 states that this limit is assessed per purchase or per rental, and not per financial year. The scheme is reserved for companies subject to the impôt sur les sociétés and covers costs incurred up to 31 December 2027. Where the fleet is rented, the statute itself requires a contract taken out for a minimum term of three years: the condition is in the article, not in the doctrine.
We do not assert that it is. The principle is exclusion from the right of deduction for vehicles or machines designed to carry people or for mixed use, and the tax administration confines the deduction to cycles whose fittings evidence a design exclusively for carrying goods, the example given being a two-wheel front-loader with a flat deck or a tipping box. It is not obvious that the models we introduce fall within that exception, and we do not assert that they do. We therefore cost inclusive of all taxes, which is consistent with the 25 per cent cap that is likewise assessed inclusive of all taxes, and we recommend securing this point by rescrit before drawing any budget advantage from it.
No, and we will not do it for you. Let us start with a frequent inaccuracy: the zone à faibles émissions mobilité of the Métropole du Grand Paris, or ZFE-m (the Paris low-emission zone), was not created on 1 January 2025. It has been in force since 1 July 2019, its first restrictions having applied to unclassified vehicles and Crit'Air 5, extended to Crit'Air 4 from 1 June 2021. It is its stage targeting Crit'Air 3 stickers that has applied since 1 January 2025, under arrêté n° AP2024-415, transmitted electronically to and received by the préfecture on 20 December 2024. It covers light commercial vehicles classified Crit'Air 3, 4, 5 and unclassified, Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. excluding public holidays, across 77 municipalities including Paris. Take care how you read your fleet: the class does not follow from the year of registration alone. The nomenclature of the arrêté of 21 June 2016 combines the vehicle's category, its energy source, its Euro standard and its date of first registration, and diesel and petrol do not switch on the same date. The Ville de Paris sums up class 3 as follows: petrol vehicles registered before 2006, diesel vehicles registered before 2011. So it is each vehicle's certificat qualité de l'air that has to be checked, one by one, and not a single date applied to the whole fleet. What matters most for your budget remains, and we put it in writing: the Métropole has extended an educational period from 1 January to 31 December 2026, during which no penalty is applied and checks are occasional and informative. In the zone à trafic limité of Paris Centre, the Ville de Paris states for its part that no penalty notices are being issued to date. We do not write that fines will start on 1 January 2027: no published text provides for it. The item to investigate is therefore not the fine; it is anticipating a timetable and the residual value of an asset whose access depends on a policy decision whose outcome is not known.
Every item of data is tied to its source and to the date on which we checked it. Texts change: if you spot a discrepancy, write to us and we will correct it.
Describe your actual use, the load carried, the operating radius, the number of stops and the daily mileage, and we will pin the scope down with you. What we then carry out is a usage and equipment study: sizing, choice of machines, storage, maintenance and familiarisation training. We then present your file to finance houses, without being a party to the financing. We address no costing to any given client: the offer, the monthly payment, the term, the guarantees and acceptance of the file are matters for the société de crédit-bail approached, distinct from Wander. Our role is that of an indicateur within the meaning of article R. 519-2, 2° of the code monétaire et financier, and Wander is not registered with ORIAS. The lease calculator on the site remains available and you operate it yourself, on your own assumptions: its results are indicative and non-contractual, produced outside any financing offer, and constitute neither an offer, nor a proposal, nor a promise of financing. Page current as at 28 July 2026, next review scheduled for 1 September 2026.
Request a studyWander SAS acts as business introducer and service partner. Financing is provided by a société de crédit-bail, what the market calls leasing, distinct from Wander: Wander is not the finance provider, is not a party to the financing contract, collects no funds and provides no banking or payment services intermediation.