ast Tuesday, at 11 a.m. local time, the city and county of Denver put the latest batch of applications for e-bike rebates online. By 11:07, all 1,100That’s par for the course, says Sarah Thorne, a senior program manager at the Colorado Energy Office, who snagged a $900 Denver rebate herself last year within two minutes of a similar portal opening.
“I call 2023 the year of the e-bike,” says John MacArthur, who manages the Sustainable Transportation Program at Portland State and is co-creator of the tracker. The spread of e-bike incentives in the last year has been dramatic, he adds. MacArthur says buyers want to see the discounts at the point of purchase, as opposed to a tax credit or refund collected later. A rebate linked to an in-store sale also adds a human element, observes Chris Cherry, a professor in civil and environmental engineering at the University of Tennessee. “Having that kind of personal connection is an important part of the process.
–a distance which would take around nine minutes on an e-bike, assuming the rider travels at a speed of 20 miles per hour. Federal law specifies a 20-mile maximum speed for e-bike travel with motor power alone, but the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which regulates e-bikes, has clarified they canwhen it’s via a combination of human and electric power; Class 3 e-bikes can do a combined 28 mph. Motorcycles are regulated separately by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.