The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has opened its e-bike rebate lottery, which will give Washingtonians either a $300 or $1,200 rebate depending on their income in an effort to get more people commuting via bike.
Rebate applications opened April 9 and will close two weeks later at noon on Wednesday, April 23.
WSDOT said it expects to give out about 10,000 vouchers, though there are a few catches. Roughly 60 percent of those vouchers will go to low-income households, meaning households that make 80 percent of the county area median income or below. In Whatcom County, that would mean a household with an income of $64,791 or less. The vouchers also only allow for one per household.
Those who meet the low-income requirement will be eligible for the $1,200 rebate, and those who don’t will be eligible for the $300 rebate. The rebates can then be used at more than 100 eligible bike retailers around the state, including nine in Whatcom County.
The state is offering more than $4 million in funding for the instant rebate program thanks to the state’s Climate Commitment Act revenues earmarked in the 2023-25 transportation budget bill.
Not everyone will get a rebate, according to WSDOT. It’s more like a lottery system than a guaranteed rebate program, but the program aims to get people on bicycles who may not have otherwise been able to afford a new bike.
The rebate program could mean new customers for bike retailers like John Roy, co-owner of Birch Bay Bike Shop. Roy has been in business in Birch Bay for three years, and has seen the retail cycling industry change drastically in that time.
During the pandemic years of the early 2020s, Roy said e-bikes were selling consistently, and bike manufacturers responded by overproducing, causing a glut in the market.
With the slowdown in sales and tariffs threatening to increase prices, Roy hopes the rebate can get people into the market who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford a brand new, high quality e-bike.
“What I get the most joy out of is seeing somebody who hasn’t ridden for a while. They’re not sure they can do it, maybe they’re intimidated, and we just get them back on a bike,” Roy said. “Helping people realize that an e-bike is not cheating, you get great workouts and they get people out enjoying the outdoors.”
Roy said he’s glad the rebates are only allowed to be used at eligible brick-and-mortar bike retailers, which provide more education and higher quality bicycles than online retailers.
“[Online] is the worst way to buy a bike,” Roy said. “The standard parts of these bikes, the tires, the chain – that’s traditional stuff, but the controllers, displays, throttles, all the electronics, they don’t have spares and they’re not designed to be fixed. In the industry we call them bicycle-shaped objects.”
Rebates will be awarded via random selection, and applicants can fill out a rebate bid at ebikeswsdot.aptim.com.
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