33,000 apply for WA e-bike rebate

Traffic Lab is a Seattle Times project that digs into the region’s transportation issues to explore the policies and politics that determine how we get around and how billions of dollars in public money are spent.

The results are in. Washingtonians want some help buying electric bicycles.

A two-week window to apply for between $300 and $1,200 toward buying an e-bike yielded 33,175 eligible applications, according to Adele Peers, who is helping to run the rebate program for the state’s Active Transportation Department.

Still, the state only has money for about 8,500 discounts, so applicants were put in a lottery and the state has already randomly selected people to receive the discount. Others have been told they’re on a waitlist. The remaining, unlucky ones will remain unlucky — the state has no further funding to help people buy an e-bike.

“I have personally taken calls today from people around the state who have been selected,” Peers said in an email, noting she’s spoken to people in Seattle, Spokane, Everett and Vancouver. “It’s very exciting!”

The state received more than 37,000 applications, but about 4,000 were disqualified after screening for duplicates and fraud.

Of the eligible applicants, 61% self-identified as income eligible, meaning the applicant’s household earned below 80% of their area’s median income level, and could receive a rebate of $1,200. Those who don’t meet the income requirement can get $300.

Washington legislators put $5 million toward the program as part of the 2023-25 state transportation budget, with money from the Climate Commitment Act. Before the funding could made available, legislators 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 2024.

Those who get a rebate through the lottery need to show they live in the state and document that their income makes them eligible. Once notified, they have 96 hours to email their documents to APTIM, the company the state contracted to build and manage the rebate program.

APTIM, based in Baton Rouge, La., which describes itself as an environmentally focused “solutions firm,” has run e-bike incentive programs for Boston; Boulder, Colo.; Denver; and the state of Colorado.

If someone doesn’t respond within 96 hours, the state will run a new lottery next week with the people on the waitlist.

Similar e-bike programs have been hugely popular, which has led to technical issues. For instance, 30,000 people tried to apply for Minnesota’s $1,500 e-bike voucher program last summer, but the state’s glitchy site processed only 80 applications in two hours before it was shut down.

While Washington’s program was popular, it appears to have avoided any technical hang-ups.

A similar e-bike rebate program in Tacoma will provide discounts for 450 city residents living in communities affected by poor air quality, with funding from the Washington State Department of Ecology.

The cost of e-bikes has remained relatively stable in recent years as their use has skyrocketed, particularly in places like Seattle, a hilly city with a robust bikeway network.

The cost, however, is predicted to grow with President Donald Trump’s tariffs against China, which dominates the American bicycle market. Trump imposed a staggering 145% tariff on virtually all Chinese goods.

According to a 2021 report by the manufacturing-focused Coalition for a Prosperous America, China supplied 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.”

A Washington state Senate proposal to impose a 10% tax on all e-bike sales was stripped out of the transportation budget this month after facing stiff resistance from bicycle advocacy groups.