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Washington's e-bike rebate program again opens for applications. State residents can now apply for a $300 rebate for the general public or qualify for a $1,200 rebate depending on income eligibility (wsdot.wa.gov)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/fuckcars@lemmy.world
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[–] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 child)

You're not wrong about that, but it's just unfortunate that the subsidy isn't large enough to actually make the up-front price for the LBS bike cheaper than the mail-order bike. If people were already struggling to afford something like a Rad or Lectric before, a subsidy for a bike that, at the end of the day, still ends up costing more than that doesn't actually help them.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago

    I agree the $300 level doesn't land quite as hard with LBS compared to mail-order bikes. This is seen in the earlier program's data:

    "84 percent of applicants awarded $1,200 towards an e-bike purchase redeemed them, while just 24 percent of the applicants awarded a $300 rebate redeemed theirs. Expenditures on rebates during this pilot were $2.58 million out of an available $4.2 million."

    Still, a 24% voucher conversion rate isn't nothing! And it did lift ebike sales, even if the voucher didn't apply:

    "The UW also found rebate offers substantially increased e-bike purchases: 92 percent of purchases in the income-qualified group and 70 percent in the non-income-qualified group were induced by the rebate, leading to an estimated 2,490 induced purchases overall. These results demonstrate that rebates are an effective tool for sparking new e-bike sales, particularly among lower-income households where larger incentives are needed."

    I'd consider that a successful program!

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