At long last, state assistance for pedal-assist electric bikes is on the way.
Beginning in April — nearly two years after the Legislature funded the program — about 8,500 Washingtonians will get to apply for money toward buying an e-bike. If similar programs in other states are an example, don’t expect it to be easy.
“I know the people of Washington have been waiting a very long time, and have been keen for this to move,” said Adele Peers, who oversees the state’s rebate program.
The Washington State Department of Transportation’s Active Transportation Division has spent the last two years trying to ensure the money goes to the right people, and with as few hiccups as possible.
People who live in a household earning 80% of their county’s median income could receive a rebate of $1,200. Those who don’t meet the income requirement can get $300.
The rebates won’t be doled out by a first-come, first-served model, where the 7.8 million people of Washington rush to get one of the 8,500 golden tickets.
Instead, interested people will register with the state over a two-week period, providing their name, address and age. The rebates are only available to people 16 and older. Applicants will also say whether their income qualifies them for a bigger rebate. The rebates then will be given to the applicants through a lottery. The date that registration will open has not been decided.
According to Peers, 60% of the money will go to people with lower incomes.
The rebates will occur at the register, through point-of-sale discounts at about 100 bike shops “with a physical store and repair service.” Those stores have not yet been chosen.
The rebates can be used for any of the three classes of e-bikes — the fastest is able to go up to 28 mph with the motor providing power only when the rider is pedaling, also known as pedal assist. Throttles are allowed on e-bikes, but only at speeds 20 mph or lower.
A date certain for the rebates has been long awaited.
Peers said the time Washington took to stand up its program was relatively swift, pointing to California’s program, which took nearly three years to launch.
Washington legislators put $5 million toward the program as part of the 2023-25 state transportation budget, with money from the Climate Commitment Act.
Though the funding was fully approved in May 2023, the rollout required an in-depth policy report looking at e-bike incentives, which was done by researchers at the University of Washington and Portland State University and completed in March.
Peers — who is originally from Liverpool, England, and taught bicycle education in Cambodia — wasn’t hired until March.
Then, the state held a public bidding process to find a vendor.
Like many government processes, getting the rebate program up and running was slow and deliberative by design, Peers said.
“There’s a lot to be considered, legally. Data protection. Security design reviews. The equity pieces,” Peers said.
Beyond security and privacy concerns, similar e-bike programs have been notoriously popular, leading to technical issues, something Washington hopes to avoid.
Last summer, Minnesota started its program to give up to $1,500 in e-bike vouchers. Though 30,000 people were trying to apply, the state’s glitchy site processed only 80 applications in two hours before it was shut down.
A month later, the state tried again. Within 18 minutes, 14,428 people applied and upward of 61,000 people were in a virtual waiting room when the application site crashed.
Throughout last year, Denver released batches of rebates from its popular program, which offers $400 for e-bikes, $1,200 for income-qualifying residents and an additional $500 for cargo e-bikes. The August batch of 220 rebates drew 17,000 applicants — 77 times the number available.
California’s program had more than 100,000 people in the queue for the 1,500 vouchers it handed out during its first round last month.
Peers said she was confident rebates would go out smoothly this spring, following a contract the state signed with APTIM, which will build and manage the rebate program.
APTIM, based in Baton Rouge, La., describes itself as an environmentally focused “solutions firm.” Peers said the company has managed “various energy rebate models,” and has run e-bike incentive programs for Boston; Boulder, Colo.; Denver; and the state of Colorado.
In the time it’s taken Washington to get its program running, the average cost of an e-bike has remained relatively stable at just over $3,000, according to an article from PeopleForBikes, a national advocacy organization.
The cost, however, will likely grow with incoming President Donald Trump’s threat of new tariffs against China, which dominates the American bicycle market. Trump has said he wants tariffs of up to 60% on Chinese goods.
According to a 2021 report by the manufacturing-focused Coalition for a Prosperous America, 97% of bikes purchased in the U.S. were imported. China alone supplied more than 86% of the bikes sold in the U.S., making the bike market “one of the most import-dependent and China-dependent industries in the U.S.”
