Folding and compact electric cargo bikes: footprint, parking and storage for a company fleet

A point of legal vocabulary before anything else, because it is handled badly by very nearly every sales document in circulation. The obligation to install secure bicycle parking infrastructure no longer rests on article L. 111-5-2 of the code de la construction et de l'habitation. It was recodified into articles L. 113-18 to L. 113-20 of the same code by ordonnance n° 2020-71 du 29 janvier 2020 (a French government ordinance made under parliamentary authorisation). Articles L. 113-18 and L. 113-20 have been in force since 1 July 2021 and carry no expiry date. Citing the old article in a specification or an internal note is not a serious fault, but it is a sign that the document has not been updated in five years, and an attentive project client will notice.

How the two articles divide the ground matters when you are working out whether you are caught. Article L. 113-18 covers new build and takes in four families of buildings: housing developments; buildings in industrial or tertiary use whose main purpose is a place of work and which are equipped with parking spaces intended for employees; buildings housing a public service and equipped with spaces for staff or for users; and retail complexes or cinemas equipped with spaces for customers. Article L. 113-20, for its part, covers existing buildings in tertiary use made up mainly of professional premises, where they are equipped with parking spaces intended for workers. It is this second category that catches the majority of Île-de-France SMEs, since it presupposes no building project at all.

The detailed rules were set by décret n° 2022-930 du 25 juin 2022 (the implementing decree) and by the arrêté du 30 juin 2022 (the ministerial order made under it). The décret created article R. 113-14 of the code de la construction et de l'habitation, in force since 26 December 2022, which sets the trigger threshold: it catches any owner of a building whose car park includes at least ten spaces intended for workers, as well as any co-owner whose lots include at least ten of those spaces in the private portion. Below ten parking spaces allocated to workers, the obligation does not apply.

The proportions appear in the table annexed to the arrêté du 30 juin 2022, and they differ according to whether the building is new or existing. For a new building in industrial or tertiary use whose main purpose is a place of work, the minimum number of bicycle spaces corresponds to 15% of the total number of employees present in the building at any one time. For an existing building in tertiary use, as for a building whose car park is being worked on, the proportion is 10% of the total number of workers present at any one time. Article 2 of the arrêté specifies that, for the co-owner referred to in paragraph II of article R. 113-14, that minimum corresponds to 10% of the total number of workers present at any one time in their premises.

Two edge mechanisms are worth knowing about. Article 4 of the arrêté sets at 2% the ratio referred to in the first paragraph of article R. 113-13 of the code de la construction et de l'habitation, which is what makes the obligation bite during works, by reference to the cost of those works measured against the value of the building. And article R. 113-17 provides for two grounds of derogation: the absence of available space accessible from the public highway, and the impossibility of complying with the minimum requirements of the plan local d'urbanisme.

That last point leads to a check many companies skip. Article L. 151-30 of the code de l'urbanisme (the French planning code), in force in its current wording since 1 July 2021, provides that where the rules of the plan local d'urbanisme (the local land-use plan) impose requirements on motor-vehicle parking, they must set sufficient requirements for bicycles in respect of residential and office buildings, in compliance with the conditions laid down in article L. 113-18 of the code de la construction et de l'habitation. The plan local d'urbanisme may therefore be more demanding than the code de la construction, in which case it is the more onerous standard that applies. Before sizing a store, read the rules for the zone.

Product pages never put it this plainly: very few cargo bikes fold in the sense in which you fold a conventional folding bike. On an urban folding bike, it is the frame that hinges in the middle and the overall length is halved. On a longtail, the frame does not fold, because its length is precisely the point of it: the length is what carries the load or the passenger. What folds is the hardware bolted around it, not the frame.

The case of the third-generation Tern GSD S10 illustrates it to the centimetre. The manufacturer's spec sheet gives 192 × 68 × 118 cm unfolded and 185 × 46 × 88 cm once folded, for an operation quoted at five seconds. The gain in length is therefore seven centimetres, under four per cent. The real gain lies elsewhere: width goes from 68 to 46 cm and height from 118 to 88 cm. Tern's support documentation confirms the mechanism, stating that it is the stem that folds down, not the frame. A company buying a longtail in the hope of halving its storage length will be disappointed; a company buying one to stand it against a wall or load it into a van will have done the right sum.

The first-generation Tern Quick Haul P9 makes the point by its silence. Its spec sheet publishes 172.5 × 70 × 102.5 cm unfolded, a weight of 22.9 kg and a maximum gross weight of 150 kg, but no folded dimension. The sheet even goes so far as to note that a folded dimension would not include the racks and mudguards, without ever giving a figure. A model sold as compact is therefore not necessarily a folding model, and the absence of a folded dimension on a manufacturer's spec sheet is information in itself.

The first-generation Tern HSD P9, by contrast, publishes a folded dimension of 163 × 40.5 × 86 cm, a five-second fold, a weight of 25.7 kg, a maximum gross weight of 170 kg and 55-406 tyres, that is, twenty-inch wheels. Its sheet, on the other hand, publishes no unfolded overall length. Note in passing that dimensions vary from one generation to the next within the same model, and that a first-generation sheet does not necessarily describe the machine you will receive: always ask for the sheet for the model year ordered.

To gauge the gap with a genuine frame fold, the Gocycle CXi serves as a useful point of comparison. Its sheet quotes an overall length of 1,950 mm and stowed dimensions of 1,180 × 400 × 780 mm, with the stand folded up and the removable pedals taken off, for a weight of about 23 kg including stand and pedals and a total weight of 190 kg. The reduction in length therefore reaches almost forty per cent, because both the frame and the handlebars fold. But the same sheet gives a maximum rear load of 60 kg, which places the machine in family use rather than in heavy commercial haulage. A genuine fold is paid for in carrying capacity.

The summary fits in one sentence. On a cargo bike, compact means in practice a folding stem or handlebars, a retractable seatpost and small-diameter wheels, three choices that gain height and width and next to nothing in length. Folding, in the strict sense of a hinged frame, remains the exception, and that exception translates into reduced payload.

One precaution is called for before any discussion of standards, and it works as a safeguard. Article 17 of décret n° 2009-697 du 16 juin 2009 on standardisation provides that standards apply on a voluntary basis, and that standards may be made compulsory by an arrêté signed by the minister responsible for industry and by the other minister or ministers concerned. In other words, nobody can hold a compulsory standard against you without citing the arrêté that makes it compulsory. A supplier who writes “compulsory standard” without an arrêté reference is being inaccurate.

The safety standard for the electrically power assisted cycle is NF EN 15194+A1, published in August 2023, in force, 146 pages, which replaced NF EN 15194 of October 2017, now withdrawn. It describes a cycle whose motor has a maximum continuous rated power of 0.25 kW and whose assistance is cut off when the vehicle reaches 25 km/h, or earlier if the rider stops pedalling. It excludes from its scope cycles intended for hire from unattended stations, that is, self-service systems. That last point deserves careful reading by any company contemplating making a fleet available without supervision.

The same definition appears in French positive law at article R. 311-1 of the code de la route (the French highway code), whose version in force as at 27 July 2026 results from décret n° 2026-652 du 22 juillet 2026, applicable since 25 July 2026. Because the text is so recent, recheck its wording as at the date of any purchase decision or contract drafting.

The family of standards specific to carrier cycles is the EN 17860 series, and it has to be discussed accurately because it is neither old nor complete. Part 3, devoted to lightweight multi-track carrier cycles and their mechanical aspects, was published in September 2024, runs to 55 pages and is in force. Part 5, devoted to electrical aspects, was published in December 2024, runs to 34 pages and is likewise in force. Part 2, devoted to lightweight two-wheeled carrier cycles and their mechanical aspects, is the one that covers a longtail. It was published as NF EN 17860-2+A1 on 15 July 2026. Since that publication is very recent at the date of this page, reconfirm the edition in force with AFNOR (the French standards body) before writing it into a contractual document.

The series is not complete, however. Part 6, devoted to the carriage of forward-facing or rearward-facing passengers on a carrier cycle, excluding child seats falling under EN 14344:2022, is still a draft out for public enquiry and is not published as at 27 July 2026. That is precisely the part that would deal with carrying an adult passenger on a longtail. Any company contemplating that use should know that there is, to date, no published European standard covering it specifically.

The practical consequence is simple. In a specification, it is not enough to write “complies with EN 17860”, a form of words that means nothing since the series comprises several parts at different stages. You have to require the part and the edition, for instance the exact reference of the part applicable to the type of cycle ordered, and ask the supplier for the corresponding declaration. That is the only drafting that survives a technical discussion.