We’re on a roll developing the e-bike rebate program

by: Adele Peers and Hannah Weinberger

We got excited when we heard there was going to be an e-bike rebate here. Last year, the Washington State Legislature funded an E-Bike Rebate Pilot Program with $5 million in Climate Commitment Act dollars. The program will help Washington residents purchase e-bikes from local bike shops.

E-bikes come with many benefits. They can:

• make bike riding more accessible and comfortable.
• reduce household spending on vehicles.
• replace driving trips with bike rides.
• improve the health of people and the planet.

Government e-bike rebate programs are a new concept in North America. They’ve been popular where governments offer them, and have helped people make bike riding a habit.

Between our own excitement and yours (based on the questions you sent us), we began talking about our program. This was long before we had staff to start the rebates. In fact, we hadn’t even had a chance to do any research about how to design a program like this. We set some expectations that the work ahead would take some time.

A lot needs to happen behind the scenes to turn legislation into rebate vouchers. Just one example of things to work out is data security. The rebates are tied to income. That means we need to protect people’s personal and financial information when they apply for and receive rebates. We started working on this with the staff we already had, but they also were managing other new and expanded programs.

We’ve made a lot of progress since funding started in July 2023. Here’s what we’ve done so far:

• worked with the University of Washington to research and publish a Policy Brief (PDF 703KB) to guide how we structure the program.
• developed a program manager position and hired someone into it.
• created processes to more easily launch and manage this program. (And this work is ongoing also.)
• communications research. (Also ongoing.)
• coordinating with bike shop staff about questions we can answer with educational materials.
• define the qualifications required from a website contractor. (More on this below.)

At this point we’re like a paddling duck. There’s not much movement on top of the water but we’re working hard below the surface.

Our focus this summer was writing a legal document guiding how we work with contractors. It lets them know we need a partner to build and manage a website that will process the rebates. The document outlines qualifications a company needs to work with us, and what we expect them to produce. This is not something just any company can do. The website and rebate technology need to handle lots of people using them at once. They need to protect people’s information while they’re applying for and receiving vouchers. Bike shops need to be able to accept vouchers and receive rebate payments. We recently held an informational session to share this information with potential contractors. We expect to choose a partner this November.

While all that was going on, we’ve also been talking with other e-bike rebate programs. There are teams managing city and state rebate programs elsewhere that have run into problems after launching too quickly. In some cases, they’ve had to slow down or even stop the rebates after they started them. Some of them have had trouble with websites. We’re learning from them to avoid or minimize the effects of similar issues.

We will have a better idea of when our launch date might be when we have a partner. We can then provide a launch schedule. We’re confident we’ll have plenty to report in our next legislative update due July 2025.

A question we’ve been asked several times: The rebates will be offered when someone buys an e-bike and will not be available retroactively.

Many people tell us they won’t purchase an e-bike until rebates are available. This might not help them with their e-bike purchases. We won’t be able to provide rebates to everyone interested. We expect to give out about 8,500 vouchers. Most of those will go to low-income households. Rebates will range from $300 to $1,200; people need to meet low-income requirements to get the $1,200 rebate. The legislature limits households to one voucher each. There are about 3 million households in the state.

We expect to see a lot more e-bike riders in the next few years. Aside from creating the rebate program, we’re also making materials to help people prepare to use and ride e-bikes. There is some info out there already, but there are gaps that we would like to cover. We want everyone to be as safe and comfortable as possible. These will answer questions we frequently get from residents and bike shops. Please let us know if you need specific resources to feel comfortable and knowledgeable about riding and maintaining an e-bike in Washington state!

The best way to learn about our progress with this program is by signing up for our Walk & Roll newsletter. We appreciate your patience and can’t wait to show you what a pilot program like this can do for you and your neighbors!