DENVER — Denver's e-bike rebate program is returning later this month after it was put on pause when funding was exhausted last year.
The next round of applications opens on Jan. 31 at 11 a.m. The city said up to 860 rebate vouchers will be available.
With the rebates, all Denverites can save $300 off the price of an e-bike, and residents who qualify for the income-qualified rebate can save $1,200. Purchasing an e-cargo bike adds an extra $200 to both types of vouchers.
The rebates were first made available in April as part of the Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency's Climate Action Rebates program. Last year, the rebates were $400.
"Thanks in part to the increased competition spurred by our e-bike rebate program, the average price of an e-bike purchased through the rebate program dropped from $2,600 to $2,100 in Denver," the city said in a news release Wednesday. "To get more e-bikes on the road this year, we lowered the standard rebates and e-cargo bike rebate amounts accordingly."
More than 3,000 Denverites applied for rebates within the first three weeks of the program's launch in April. The city then retooled the application process, making a limited number of rebates available each month.
The city paused the program in October, saying its overwhelming popularity had exhausted the funding. They said at the time that they expected the program to relaunch in early 2023, after the Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency had added more funding to the third-party rebate administrator's contract.
In the 2022 program, 4,734 e-bike rebates were redeemed, and 2,330 of the rebates went to income-qualified residents, the city said.
Denverites who are interested in e-bikes but not yet ready to claim a rebate voucher can sign up for notifications before each round of rebates becomes available.
The tentative release dates for 2023 are:
- Jan. 31
- March 28
- May 30
- July 25
- Sept. 26
- Nov. 28
To help limit the number of unredeemed vouchers and ensure rebates are available for those ready to buy, the city encourages anyone who might be interested in an e-bike to visit a participating bike shop, ask questions and test out a few models before applying for a voucher.
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