An Update on California’s E-Bike Incentive Program

California’s beleaguered e-bike incentive program is still not off the ground, writes Melanie Curry in Streetsblog California.

Curry notes that 77 vouchers have been distributed through a “soft launch,” but information about the program remains vague. According to Curry, “There is no information online about where the soft launch is happening or how people are finding out about it or which organizations are handling outreach. CARB staff have been very slow to respond to questions, and their answers have been vague and incomplete.”

Outlining the history of the program, the article highlights management and administration challenges that have delayed the program’s start. “CARB expects to give out on the order of 15,000 incentives from the initial allocation and, as far as anyone knows, still plans to do this via multiple application windows, into 2025.” The program has at least 20,000 interested parties, signaling that the rebates will likely run out quickly.

Curry concludes, “The biggest problem with this failure to launch is that even the total amount of money available is but a drop in the bucket. It will not structurally improve the affordability of e-bikes or create a huge mode shift, even if CARB were more dedicated to seeing it happen quickly.”