Even I can’t believe this

The lady in the DREAL who I spoke to this morning was supposed to provide me with her email address so I could ‘submit my question’ by email. But, as expected, she didn’t.

So I contacted her again and she started to give me some spiel about how I couldn’t get approval for a single bike, that it would have to be done by the manufacturer and that would be very expensive. I smelt a rat, so I asked why, therefore, is there a system for individuals to get approval for a single machine and why couldn’t I modify my bike so it was different from the manufacturer’s model and get approval for my version.

This clearly didn’t accord with the game plan and totally flummoxed she transferred me to her manager. After a brief introductory conversation he began to feed me the same spiel and I asked him the same question to which he couldn’t provide an acceptable answer. He kept repeating that the manufacturer was the one who had to seek approval and that it would be very expensive.

However, when I asked how expensive, he couldn’t give an answer and seemed somewhat gobsmacked when I told him that I had the test station’s tariff that wasn’t that expensive and a large part of which didn’t apply to an electric bike anyway. So things weren’t going too well.

I then asked him the direct question – are bureaucratic barriers being put up to prevent the sale of Chinese electric vehicles into France, and although he denied it he couldn’t tell me why it was being so difficult for me to get approval for a machine which, on the face of it, met all of the regulatory requirements.

After I began to list the regulations that I knew it conformed to it became clear to him that I wasn’t just going to roll over and meekly accept no for an answer. I told him that I’d done a lot of research and collected a lot of information that supported my case.

The conversation ended with him asking me to send him the information I’d collected together with photographs and that’s what I’ve done and I’ll now need a detailed response as to why my bike does not conform. I’ll not accept a load of flannel that they hope will fob me off and give them a simple life but I can’t believe that at the 11th hour I’m still pushing for approval for my bike after I’ve told the supplier that it’s on its way back to them!