OLYMPIA – The Washington State Department of Transportation is relaunching the state’s WE-Bike e-bike rebate program on March 30 to help even more travelers get rolling with active transportation.
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 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!