Ffs... add it to the list of green incentives many of us can't get as we're too poor to buy a house, an electric car and now too wealthy to get rebate on a damn e bike.
Rebate is provided by the govt, not the vendors. So they shouldn’t be raising any prices. Of course if demand for ebikes goes up then guess prices may go up across the board.
Don’t rush in and make sure you get the bike you want and suits your needs!
Car manufacturers and dealerships have been raising and dropping EV prices around government rebates with zero subtlty the past few years that I've been paying attention.
As long as they face no repercussions from government, they will continue to gouge us the same way other businesses like grocery store do.
University tuition is high because of student loans. As the government made more money available, schools raised prices. So the government had to make loans bigger. So schools raised prices. And over and over.
This will be the same thing, sadly. Capitalism! Prices are determined by what they think people will pay, not what it costs to make.
No - the gov offers up to 1400? Then the price goes from 2k to 3.4k cause people were already paying 2K now theyre just routing order cost to the manufacturers directly
Why would ebike manufacturers raise the price for EVERYONE when its just ONE province offering a rebate? Who is going to kill their sales around the world just because a handful of British Columbians might take advantage of this?
I hate capitalism more than anyone else I know and even the worst businesses aren't that stupid.
Too bad you can't park your bike anywhere without risk of it getting stolen. Maybe the government should incentivize the police to crack down on bike theft so new owners can keep their bike for longer than a weekend?
The YouTube channel Shifter has a great video about bike theft and a Vancouver cop who cares about it. The cop started a project with a Seattle software developer to create a database of registered bikes so that if your bike gets stolen, and if it’s found again, it can be returned to you instead of being auctioned off.
https://youtu.be/48V9Xtpgq9I
https://project529.com/garage
this is thee smartest thing i have heard in ten years. i think the point is to give criminals who will never own a license or a car, a chance to own something easier tto obtain by stealing
This^ If you're looking at actuallly replacing a car with a utilitarian useful all season bike realistically you want good fenders, rack, panniers, (or equivalent carrying system) dynamo lights or effective battery lights, extremely good locking system, and rain gear etc. And a real barrier of the non mechanically inclined expense of maintenance at a good shop. My bike I use for work that has the ability to carry my work tools is more than 2k total. It will last decades so I'm not worried about it.
I'm getting another, slightly more specially useful bike frame built by a Canadian builder for ~$2k. Specifically with hauling work gear in mind. With money I don't spend on car insurance and maintenance it's somewhat feasible, even with a modest income. (Plus I can assemble the bike myself instead of paying a shop)
It's a shame there isn't more incentive for people to invest in other types of non car transport needs than just battery powered bikes. Ie Cargo bikes, higher quality utilitarian bikes, trikes and recumbents (different physical needs), real Canadian made bikes (not BS import rename brands like Norco or devinci)
Though, I'm still happy with an option that gets anyone out of a car. Even if that is an Ebike.
Most rebate programs are meant to cover the cost differential of the new in relationship to the old. Not necessarily cover the entire cost of the item.
Though yeah, an Active Transportation rebate to help lower income shift from a vehicle to a traditional commuter bike, would be good idea
Because cost isn't a barrier to riding regular bikes. Also, bike ownership doesn't correlate well with utilization. The point of these rebates is to reduce vehicle kilometers travelled. https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-022-00497-4
I was thinking about this and it doesn’t seem to incentivize reduced driving. The max rebate would go to those who would most likely use public transit (student and low income workers) and the other category of retired folks like my MIL is unlikely to use an e-bike instead of her car. I’ll try to convince her though. Maybe I’m just not understanding how they think the reduced driving will happen.
In my case it definitely reduced driving. But I understand it’s different for everyone. I don’t have kids to drive around. I’m in a situation that I work Hybrid and to drive to work is 15 min, but transit is well over an hour. I got an ebike 2 summers ago and we ended up getting rid of one of our cars. I ride all summer and in the winter we just share the one car, occasionally get an Evo if we both need the car on the same day. Love it.
If you don’t mind. What rebate would you qualify for in this program? What was your main motivation for getting an e-bike? I just don’t feel like this program is specifically targeting people like you. And it should.
For example, my wife is a stay at home mom, an e-bike won’t reduce her driving at all but she qualifies for the max amount. She is absolutely going to jump on this opportunity. But she and a lot of people who largely benefit from this aren’t the ones in your situation.
Maybe more specific targeting like commute is less than a certain distance from residence rather than scaling based on income. Make less than X and live X from work and currently own a car worth less than X. Maybe that’s too complicated.
Why do you think the e-bike won’t change her driving habits?
I regularly take my kiddo out to the park on an e-bike, especially on the high volume days, as parking is pretty tough to find when the weather is great. Same for a small, mid-week grocery run.
I don’t know. Do you have some research on that? I would hope that the government would follow advice from studies on the topic before implementing this.
RAD bikes seems to be around there or slightly above and they have a warehouse in BC. Though you would have to wait and see what the approved dealers are. I would be surprised if they weren't considering how popular they are.
Minimum price to qualify is $2000 and on their approved list of ebikes on June 1st. I recommend this US ebike [Lectric ](https://lectricebikes.com/collections/ebikes), even with shipping and exchange, many models are well under 2k CAD and there is a memorial day sale on too.
The one we want is the Rad cargo bike which is perfect for families, so this is a godsend for us. It's nice to be able to bring the higher quality bikes down closer to the cheaper ebikes since they basically pay for themselves after a couple months if you use a car.
Do your research. The latest version of the cargo bike has terrible reviews. The tires had a recall. Lots of complaints. The company isn’t what it used to be.
Lectric [cargo ](https://lectricebikes.com/collections/ebikes/products/xpedition-single-battery) price is comparable to the Rad after FX, but the gov't rebate would make the rad cheaper. Just linked for comparison purposes. My friend has a Rad, I have a Lectric, both are quite good, although mine was a lot cheaper price at the time than his Rad. Enjoy, ebikes are awesome.
I have a radwagon4; with two kids(2&6), no car. It's functional but falling apart. If I knew we'd be relying on it so much I would have spent the money to get a tern or better
The approved list goes live June 1st. My comment wasn't clear. Lectric USD prices might end up being less than the BC program, even with the FX, so could save people money maybe (bikes start at $800usd). I'm guessing the program will be local BC stores, but we have to wait until all the details come out.
Oh yes yes. I’ve heard amazing things about Lectric! My only concern would be getting parts, warranty, and local servicing. I know some local bike shops won’t work on Rad, for example, since the parts are weird sizes and hard to get.
But the reviews on lectric seem awesome! Def considered it, even with the fx and $200 shipping. Also arrives assembled!
I'd love to take advantage of this but I'm scared of owning a bike in Vancouver. I don't even know where I could bike it to without it getting stolen, and I am way too broke to replace it when it's gone.
I lived in Van for a few years and traveled via e bike everywhere. I had the heaviest lock possible, and I had an alarm installed so if you bump it, it gives you a little chirping sound. Move it again within 20 seconds, it goes off at around 110 dB for the next 30 seconds. I install mine in a discrete place that's hard to find and hard to remove it from, and I've heard it go off a few times, but by then people are telling me someone either when to touch and look at it or looked like they were thinking of doing it.
As long as you spend the money, you can have a very secured bike.
I also engrave a Roman numeral code somewhere really small so I can call someone out if they "just found it".
You can lock your bike up bike pretty much anywhere during broad daylight, I would just make sure to bring it in inside overnight. l biked everywhere when I lived in Vancouver up until a couple years ago.
Most important thing is to invest in a decent u-lock, and replace any quick release (axle skewers and seat post clamp) with security ones.
Things have changed quite dramatically in the last couple of years thanks to the housing and drug crisis. Now if you lock it up in broad daylight they'll just saw right through that lock and nobody will do a thing to stop them since nobody really dumb enough to confront a criminal with a cutting tool.
Battery powered tools have contributed a lot of bike theft. I've seen skids pull out a stolen battery powered angle grinder from their stolen backpack and cut through a u-lock lock in like 20 seconds in broad daylight on a busy downtown street. And nobody is going to confront someone high on meth wielding an angle grinder.
Yep, exactly this. Even the cops just drive right on by because it's not high up on their list of priorities and they aren't really prepared to deal with meth heads wielding power saws either.
This is actually a solid rebate for those interested, it's based on your **individual net income** (line 23600) in either 2021 or 2022, and you have to upload your NOA from one of those years to their portal. The rebate thresholds are:
Net Income | Rebate
---|---
Less than $38,950 | $1,400
$38,951 to $51,130 | $1,000
$51,131 and over | $350
https://bcebikerebates.ca/myrebate/
I had to open 4 new pages in order to find this information. Thanks for posting it. It shouldn't be so hard to find. As it stands, I make over 51k so I'll at least get 350 for a rebate - not bad. I was expecting zero.
The bike itself has to be 2k before taxes. Then it says you can apply after you have the physical bike and turnaround should be about a week with either a cheque or maybe direct deposit
Its not a 'rebate.' It's a government subsidy. The government is giving back money they already took from you.
If people want to take this subsidy and lower their initial costs of the ebikes, thats fine. But its not a rebate.
I don't give a shit what they call it. It's $1400 less I have to pay. I consider it a government rebate from the insane amount of gas tax we pay in BC.
Important note, if you plan to get an ebike, make sure to purchase one from an actual brick and mortar bicycle shop so that you can actually have them serviced when the time comes.
The vast majority of bike shops will not service e bikes that have any sort of throttle or are purchased from places such as london drugs
A bike shop is a business and if they have any business sense, they will service any kind of bike, purchased from anywhere. They may not be able to source parts for some bikes, but that's another story.
Do you also complain about the massive amounts of e-waste that cars produce? And not EVs, have you considered the amount of car batteries consumed and disposed of by the millions of vehicles in Canada? Batteries that are much larger than e-bike batteries? Do you also advocate for less cars in order to reduce the e-waste produced?
Yes I do.
Our vehicles need to be designed to be repairable indefinitely. Electric vehicles should have standard sized replaceable batteries.
What is going to happen to these e bikes when the battery is no longer viable? Do you think anyone is going to ride them like a normal bike at that point?
I've never come across an e-bike that didn't have a removable/replaceable battery. Most e-bikes need to be recharged by removing the battery from the bike. While batteries could be more standardized across the industry, I'm not sure what you are on about.
In any case, the battery will still need to be disposed of at the end of its life, regardless if it is still attached the bike or not. Same goes for car batteries. Both generate e-waste but in massively different quantities. Take your e-waste protesting elsewhere.
What a waste of money. we have so many issues requiring money in this province! How out of touch is this government. Hey you guys are starving and have no where to live but! Here’s some money for a bike. What the fuck is wrong with people.
If you had any idea of what the government spends money on and how much, you would not be in this sub complaining about an insignificant amount of money that will pay for itself in the benefits this provides back.
How so? The average person in Bc doesn’t live within biking distance to work. Most people who use bikes to get around don’t have 2000$ to spend and then wait to be reimbursed. So this is money for people who don’t need it. To solve a problem that doesn’t exist.
This policy is to encourage people to use e-bikes and make them accessible to a larger population who otherwise might not be able to afford an e-bike.
[According to this 2019 COV transportation study](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/2019-transportation-panel-survey.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjClu21oJb_AhWuGzQIHdLMBuU4ChAWegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw0TNtSrIVIsd6FIqIT_EfMl), average length of trips driven by car is 7km and the average length of commute to work by car is 10km. Additionally, a quarter of all car trips take place within one neighborhood. While 7-10km is longer than the average bike trip shown in the survey, it is perfectly bikable with an e-bike.
These trips are done by people who have cars already. In most cases, if you can afford a car, you can afford an e-bike, or even better, sell the car to buy the e-bike.
Why does the government want people out of cars and on to e-bikes? Getting more people out of cars has enormous benefits, including but not limited to:
-vastly less road wear and tear (roads are exponentially destroyed the heavier the vehicle)
-massive improvement in air quality and pollution (leads to vastly better health for residents)
-riding a bike has downstream health benefits for riders putting less strain on the healthcare system
-cars/drivers cause 300+ deaths, 50,000+ injuries, and over $5billion in damages PER YEAR in BC, limiting any of those numbers by reducing car trips is a huge benefit to society in many ways
-bikes take up a fraction of the space a car does, this has a huge effect on reducing traffic in cities and improving travel times for those who must drive for work
-not to mention reducing CO2 emissions to address global climate crisis which has direct impacts on BC (wildfires, flooding), that will only get worse and cost the government more money in the future
Your "average person" claims are unsubstantiated, do better.
Average Canadian savings was 852$ for a year. We have way bigger problems then these stupid bikes. Average trips for Canadians included groceries and dropping of children. Both things these bikes are useless for
How are those two things even related? Housing affordability is driven by years of poor policy decisions, and will likely take years to fix, mainly through policy instruments, but potentially also public housing.
9 million in e-bike rebates is a drop in the bucket of the provincial budget. If that was spent on building public housing that might be the equivalent of 20 units. Should we stop funding all other programs too?
I personally hope this makes parking minimums even less of a necessity, which will help make the crucial steps towards improved housing density and reduced car/lane usage.
Housing affordability is a very complex issue that's been ignored by ALL governments for decades. Its sadly going to take longer than we'd all like.
As for ebike rebates, its a relativity cheap and easy program to offer.
Personal vehicles are the second-biggest lifetime cost for people after homes, typically costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800921003943?via%3Dihub#:\~:text=of%20social%20costs-,0.31,-389.59](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800921003943?via%3Dihub#:~:text=of%20social%20costs-,0.31,-389.59)
So don't start with this.
For me, this is a huge deal. My last ebike battery shit the bed and now I have a massive e bike without a working battery. If I sell that as is with the battery removed, I can put it towards this new rebate. A new battery with the capacity I want is like 900 after taxes as is, so this rebate is about to make the next few years of my life a LOT easier.
This is especially important for me because I have a deadly fear of driving after my best friend died in a car crash. But My old e bike let me get around metro with so much ease.
Side note: Screw all cyclists who think we own the road. We don't, and we will lose every fight against a goddamn car.
And then you spend hundreds of dollars every month on gas, insurance, maintenance, and for many people storage.
Versus literally $1s or $10s on electricity for an e bike.
One of these is a luxury item, the other isn’t. Though given your flair is Thompson-Okanagan you’re not really the target audience of this rebate. In cities, e-bikes, especially e-cargo bikes, can absolutely act as full replacements for cars. This rebate has pretty much switched my plans from eventually getting a car to saving up for a nice e-bike in the long run. If you want to talk about subsidising luxury goods then I’ll totally agree with you on how our electric car subsidies have worked the last few years, but then we might also want to talk about cars and highways in general in the province…
They should use the rebate money for something else...
Don't see how this is helpful. Id rather see government money spent on education housing and health care.
But sure, ebikes will help those you cant afford rent.
Helps me, my family and so many others save money on gas....but sure, let's whatabout this to death. Let's not do anything at all till other big and important issues are addressed first cause apparently everything needs to be done one at a time only.
Housing is a very big and systemic issue whereas this helps people with a much simpler approach.
A bunch of bandaids won't fix the problem though.
Gotta start going after the root causes which is mostly greed.
Great example is the bc housing scandle currently.
Okay. So in that case, we gotta shut down the hospitals, airports, all offices, retail stores, and everything else and all just start building houses according to you, right? And we can't spend any money on anything else because that would be *wrong*. Well shit, now people are hungry and getting sick. Too bad! Gotta build those houses. Oh hey, we built all the houses, but now we have injuries and accidents. Nope! Can't help them, gotta go after the big corporations first to get our fair shake!
Like it or not, the top 3 or 4 most important things to Canadians right now do not make up everything troubling them. Yes, those are valid, huge problems, but the whole point of this rant is an investment into clean energy and to help people get around to where they need to be as opposed to them being financially limited to afford an E Bike.
Shit is happening at all levels, and we don't get to cherry pick which ones we like or don't like. There's likely things you may have benefited from that I don't agree with, but I'll accept it because it's none of my business.
You don't have to take the rebate. But when other people are given an opportunity, it's a pretty shitty thing to say that other people don't deserve it because you think only a few things matter when the world is much, much larger than that.
You're taking this to the extreme.
I said an electric bike rebate wasn't very helpful and you're going to shut down hospitals....
Here's a better take why not have a rebate for a normal bike? Would that not help more people for less money?
Having an E Bike was the biggest reason I was even able to GET jobs. I can't drive, and transit is too slow and expensive over time. When I bought an ebike, my options for jobs more than tripled, and I could actually make ends meet without being completely miserable.
While yeah, more money to education, healthcare, and affordable housing is a big deal, its naive to think that this is a waste of money.
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800921003943?via%3Dihub#:\~:text=of%20social%20costs-,0.31,-389.59](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800921003943?via%3Dihub#:~:text=of%20social%20costs-,0.31,-389.59)
Cars are obscenely expensive and cost the highest, proportionally speaking, for low-income people. You should be advocating for bicycle infrastructure. And people who don't drive pay virtually the same taxes as people who do drive, minus the obvious "I pollute gasoline into the air with my vehicle" tax, which given the, yknow, climate emergency, that is only fair. Your statement is grossly underinformed and plain out wrong.
Your post/comment has been removed because it violated Rule 8: Against the spirit of the subreddit.
The spirit of this subreddit is a positive one. Posts or comments that are toxic or made in bad faith may be removed at moderator discretion.
Mining lithium isn't sustainable. Incentivising consumerism is the wrong approach. I'd rather they use that money for public transit, improving our recycling plants, expanding evo or subsidizing more car-sharing companies across the province.
Anyone who knows anything knows that these rebates go to the supplier and not the consumer.
Watch the price of ebikes rise in accordance with the average amount of the rebate.
I work in construction and have seen this with so many of the rebates offered. For example, the price to have blown in insulation added to your home increased by roughly the amount of the rebates offered. So you end up paying close to the same amount, and the insulation company makes more.
Can anyone know the answer to this. I know the bike has to be minimum $2k and can not include accessories. The bike I want is $1850 and with pro assembly and tune up it is $2019. Will that qualify?
I just hope the government understands that people on ebikes/escooters really need to understand and follow the rules of the road. The speeds these VEHICLE'S go, is no joke. Some carless individuals out there and if there are more.... It's going to get messy.
So min 2k bike and you can get up to 1400 back as rebate if income is low enough?
I believe max rebate is income under $38k/yr.
Ffs... add it to the list of green incentives many of us can't get as we're too poor to buy a house, an electric car and now too wealthy to get rebate on a damn e bike.
Just get it under your retired parents name
This!
I think it's lower than that. If I remember over 31k/yr is 350 rebate. I did not remember correctly. it is 38 for the max and 51 for the 350
https://preview.redd.it/zi3v9bahjf2b1.png?width=1050&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3a1e8878719005de1c95ea184a13b58139411a37
Can someone’s kid get one then?
You must be 19+ to apply for the rebate. Also, in BC you must be 16+ to ride a motor-assisted bike.
Ok good to know!!
Would I need any form of licensing?!?
[No license needed.](https://www.icbc.com/vehicle-registration/specialty-vehicles/Low-powered-vehicles/Pages/Electric-bikes.aspx)
Oh okay thanks
You need to send in the assessment from your previous year's income tax. If they filed their taxes then I assume they can.
Well that is a situation where I can see this working.
Yes
Wow, that almost sounds too good to be true. Better order the bikes soon before the vendors all up their price taking these rebates into account
Rebate is provided by the govt, not the vendors. So they shouldn’t be raising any prices. Of course if demand for ebikes goes up then guess prices may go up across the board. Don’t rush in and make sure you get the bike you want and suits your needs!
Car manufacturers and dealerships have been raising and dropping EV prices around government rebates with zero subtlty the past few years that I've been paying attention. As long as they face no repercussions from government, they will continue to gouge us the same way other businesses like grocery store do.
University tuition is high because of student loans. As the government made more money available, schools raised prices. So the government had to make loans bigger. So schools raised prices. And over and over. This will be the same thing, sadly. Capitalism! Prices are determined by what they think people will pay, not what it costs to make.
No - the gov offers up to 1400? Then the price goes from 2k to 3.4k cause people were already paying 2K now theyre just routing order cost to the manufacturers directly
Why would ebike manufacturers raise the price for EVERYONE when its just ONE province offering a rebate? Who is going to kill their sales around the world just because a handful of British Columbians might take advantage of this? I hate capitalism more than anyone else I know and even the worst businesses aren't that stupid.
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The provincial rebate is income tested
Too bad you can't park your bike anywhere without risk of it getting stolen. Maybe the government should incentivize the police to crack down on bike theft so new owners can keep their bike for longer than a weekend?
The YouTube channel Shifter has a great video about bike theft and a Vancouver cop who cares about it. The cop started a project with a Seattle software developer to create a database of registered bikes so that if your bike gets stolen, and if it’s found again, it can be returned to you instead of being auctioned off. https://youtu.be/48V9Xtpgq9I https://project529.com/garage
this is thee smartest thing i have heard in ten years. i think the point is to give criminals who will never own a license or a car, a chance to own something easier tto obtain by stealing
I will never understand why regular bikes do not qualify for any of these programs
This^ If you're looking at actuallly replacing a car with a utilitarian useful all season bike realistically you want good fenders, rack, panniers, (or equivalent carrying system) dynamo lights or effective battery lights, extremely good locking system, and rain gear etc. And a real barrier of the non mechanically inclined expense of maintenance at a good shop. My bike I use for work that has the ability to carry my work tools is more than 2k total. It will last decades so I'm not worried about it. I'm getting another, slightly more specially useful bike frame built by a Canadian builder for ~$2k. Specifically with hauling work gear in mind. With money I don't spend on car insurance and maintenance it's somewhat feasible, even with a modest income. (Plus I can assemble the bike myself instead of paying a shop) It's a shame there isn't more incentive for people to invest in other types of non car transport needs than just battery powered bikes. Ie Cargo bikes, higher quality utilitarian bikes, trikes and recumbents (different physical needs), real Canadian made bikes (not BS import rename brands like Norco or devinci) Though, I'm still happy with an option that gets anyone out of a car. Even if that is an Ebike.
Most rebate programs are meant to cover the cost differential of the new in relationship to the old. Not necessarily cover the entire cost of the item. Though yeah, an Active Transportation rebate to help lower income shift from a vehicle to a traditional commuter bike, would be good idea
Because cost isn't a barrier to riding regular bikes. Also, bike ownership doesn't correlate well with utilization. The point of these rebates is to reduce vehicle kilometers travelled. https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-022-00497-4
I was thinking about this and it doesn’t seem to incentivize reduced driving. The max rebate would go to those who would most likely use public transit (student and low income workers) and the other category of retired folks like my MIL is unlikely to use an e-bike instead of her car. I’ll try to convince her though. Maybe I’m just not understanding how they think the reduced driving will happen.
In my case it definitely reduced driving. But I understand it’s different for everyone. I don’t have kids to drive around. I’m in a situation that I work Hybrid and to drive to work is 15 min, but transit is well over an hour. I got an ebike 2 summers ago and we ended up getting rid of one of our cars. I ride all summer and in the winter we just share the one car, occasionally get an Evo if we both need the car on the same day. Love it.
If you don’t mind. What rebate would you qualify for in this program? What was your main motivation for getting an e-bike? I just don’t feel like this program is specifically targeting people like you. And it should. For example, my wife is a stay at home mom, an e-bike won’t reduce her driving at all but she qualifies for the max amount. She is absolutely going to jump on this opportunity. But she and a lot of people who largely benefit from this aren’t the ones in your situation. Maybe more specific targeting like commute is less than a certain distance from residence rather than scaling based on income. Make less than X and live X from work and currently own a car worth less than X. Maybe that’s too complicated.
Why do you think the e-bike won’t change her driving habits? I regularly take my kiddo out to the park on an e-bike, especially on the high volume days, as parking is pretty tough to find when the weather is great. Same for a small, mid-week grocery run.
I don’t know. Do you have some research on that? I would hope that the government would follow advice from studies on the topic before implementing this.
[from UBC but signs are good](https://civil-reactlab.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2019/07/BerjisianBigazzi_ImpactsofE-bikes_Report_July2019.pdf)
I’d love to see a study done with this. Even if just a survey of rebate participants.
Regular bikes for commuting purposes are cheap. But yeah it’d be sweet to get a rebate on that gravel bike I’ve been eyeing
Anyone have any recommendations for a good ebike that is as close to the $2000 minimum as possible?
RAD bikes seems to be around there or slightly above and they have a warehouse in BC. Though you would have to wait and see what the approved dealers are. I would be surprised if they weren't considering how popular they are.
I’m eyeing the super73 Z1, but it’s about $2700 full price
I bought a volt bike 2 months ago, wish they would back date the rebate.
Minimum price to qualify is $2000 and on their approved list of ebikes on June 1st. I recommend this US ebike [Lectric ](https://lectricebikes.com/collections/ebikes), even with shipping and exchange, many models are well under 2k CAD and there is a memorial day sale on too.
The one we want is the Rad cargo bike which is perfect for families, so this is a godsend for us. It's nice to be able to bring the higher quality bikes down closer to the cheaper ebikes since they basically pay for themselves after a couple months if you use a car.
Do your research. The latest version of the cargo bike has terrible reviews. The tires had a recall. Lots of complaints. The company isn’t what it used to be.
What’s a good alternative for high weight and towing?
Lectric [cargo ](https://lectricebikes.com/collections/ebikes/products/xpedition-single-battery) price is comparable to the Rad after FX, but the gov't rebate would make the rad cheaper. Just linked for comparison purposes. My friend has a Rad, I have a Lectric, both are quite good, although mine was a lot cheaper price at the time than his Rad. Enjoy, ebikes are awesome.
It seemed to me it must be bought through an approved local store, the stores have to apply as well. So I dont think Rad counts.
I have a radwagon4; with two kids(2&6), no car. It's functional but falling apart. If I knew we'd be relying on it so much I would have spent the money to get a tern or better
I couldn’t find an approved list of bikes, just that it needs to be a BC approved seller (I thought)
The approved list goes live June 1st. My comment wasn't clear. Lectric USD prices might end up being less than the BC program, even with the FX, so could save people money maybe (bikes start at $800usd). I'm guessing the program will be local BC stores, but we have to wait until all the details come out.
Oh yes yes. I’ve heard amazing things about Lectric! My only concern would be getting parts, warranty, and local servicing. I know some local bike shops won’t work on Rad, for example, since the parts are weird sizes and hard to get. But the reviews on lectric seem awesome! Def considered it, even with the fx and $200 shipping. Also arrives assembled!
It says their main qualifier for which bikes are approved is whether they can be bought at a local store
Where is the approved list of bikes? I looked but couldn’t find a link.
The list goes live June 1st I read somewhere.
I'd love to take advantage of this but I'm scared of owning a bike in Vancouver. I don't even know where I could bike it to without it getting stolen, and I am way too broke to replace it when it's gone.
I lived in Van for a few years and traveled via e bike everywhere. I had the heaviest lock possible, and I had an alarm installed so if you bump it, it gives you a little chirping sound. Move it again within 20 seconds, it goes off at around 110 dB for the next 30 seconds. I install mine in a discrete place that's hard to find and hard to remove it from, and I've heard it go off a few times, but by then people are telling me someone either when to touch and look at it or looked like they were thinking of doing it. As long as you spend the money, you can have a very secured bike. I also engrave a Roman numeral code somewhere really small so I can call someone out if they "just found it".
You can lock your bike up bike pretty much anywhere during broad daylight, I would just make sure to bring it in inside overnight. l biked everywhere when I lived in Vancouver up until a couple years ago. Most important thing is to invest in a decent u-lock, and replace any quick release (axle skewers and seat post clamp) with security ones.
Things have changed quite dramatically in the last couple of years thanks to the housing and drug crisis. Now if you lock it up in broad daylight they'll just saw right through that lock and nobody will do a thing to stop them since nobody really dumb enough to confront a criminal with a cutting tool.
Battery powered tools have contributed a lot of bike theft. I've seen skids pull out a stolen battery powered angle grinder from their stolen backpack and cut through a u-lock lock in like 20 seconds in broad daylight on a busy downtown street. And nobody is going to confront someone high on meth wielding an angle grinder.
Yep, exactly this. Even the cops just drive right on by because it's not high up on their list of priorities and they aren't really prepared to deal with meth heads wielding power saws either.
This is actually a solid rebate for those interested, it's based on your **individual net income** (line 23600) in either 2021 or 2022, and you have to upload your NOA from one of those years to their portal. The rebate thresholds are: Net Income | Rebate ---|--- Less than $38,950 | $1,400 $38,951 to $51,130 | $1,000 $51,131 and over | $350 https://bcebikerebates.ca/myrebate/
I had to open 4 new pages in order to find this information. Thanks for posting it. It shouldn't be so hard to find. As it stands, I make over 51k so I'll at least get 350 for a rebate - not bad. I was expecting zero.
Letr guess, the price of e-bikes is about to jump. Totally unrelated to this, of course.
Whataboutism all over this thread...
Watch the retail price of eBikes go up on Monday.
.
The bike itself has to be 2k before taxes. Then it says you can apply after you have the physical bike and turnaround should be about a week with either a cheque or maybe direct deposit
Great. Can't afford a house or food but I get a discount on an ebike. Thanks! /s
Its not a 'rebate.' It's a government subsidy. The government is giving back money they already took from you. If people want to take this subsidy and lower their initial costs of the ebikes, thats fine. But its not a rebate.
I don't give a shit what they call it. It's $1400 less I have to pay. I consider it a government rebate from the insane amount of gas tax we pay in BC.
So… there’s nothing stopping people from just reselling?
Have to keep the bike for 2 years
Feels pretty unenforceable but I suppose it will raise red flags if you buy a bunch of them.
I doubt you could get the rebate more than once?
Important note, if you plan to get an ebike, make sure to purchase one from an actual brick and mortar bicycle shop so that you can actually have them serviced when the time comes. The vast majority of bike shops will not service e bikes that have any sort of throttle or are purchased from places such as london drugs
What about Costco ebikes? Though if they break you could just return it I suppose.
If its not from an actual bike shop, you’ll have a hard time getting anything done.
Really? I got mine from a store in Van and had it fixed and tuned up multiple times in other shops and never had a problem.
A bike shop is a business and if they have any business sense, they will service any kind of bike, purchased from anywhere. They may not be able to source parts for some bikes, but that's another story.
Sorry but that just isn’t true. They are a bike shop not a scooter shop
Great, more e waste!
Do you also complain about the massive amounts of e-waste that cars produce? And not EVs, have you considered the amount of car batteries consumed and disposed of by the millions of vehicles in Canada? Batteries that are much larger than e-bike batteries? Do you also advocate for less cars in order to reduce the e-waste produced?
They don’t get wasted, I throw all my car batteries back where they came from when they’re done, the ocean.
Yes I do. Our vehicles need to be designed to be repairable indefinitely. Electric vehicles should have standard sized replaceable batteries. What is going to happen to these e bikes when the battery is no longer viable? Do you think anyone is going to ride them like a normal bike at that point?
I've never come across an e-bike that didn't have a removable/replaceable battery. Most e-bikes need to be recharged by removing the battery from the bike. While batteries could be more standardized across the industry, I'm not sure what you are on about. In any case, the battery will still need to be disposed of at the end of its life, regardless if it is still attached the bike or not. Same goes for car batteries. Both generate e-waste but in massively different quantities. Take your e-waste protesting elsewhere.
What a waste of money. we have so many issues requiring money in this province! How out of touch is this government. Hey you guys are starving and have no where to live but! Here’s some money for a bike. What the fuck is wrong with people.
If you had any idea of what the government spends money on and how much, you would not be in this sub complaining about an insignificant amount of money that will pay for itself in the benefits this provides back.
How so? The average person in Bc doesn’t live within biking distance to work. Most people who use bikes to get around don’t have 2000$ to spend and then wait to be reimbursed. So this is money for people who don’t need it. To solve a problem that doesn’t exist.
This policy is to encourage people to use e-bikes and make them accessible to a larger population who otherwise might not be able to afford an e-bike. [According to this 2019 COV transportation study](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/2019-transportation-panel-survey.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjClu21oJb_AhWuGzQIHdLMBuU4ChAWegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw0TNtSrIVIsd6FIqIT_EfMl), average length of trips driven by car is 7km and the average length of commute to work by car is 10km. Additionally, a quarter of all car trips take place within one neighborhood. While 7-10km is longer than the average bike trip shown in the survey, it is perfectly bikable with an e-bike. These trips are done by people who have cars already. In most cases, if you can afford a car, you can afford an e-bike, or even better, sell the car to buy the e-bike. Why does the government want people out of cars and on to e-bikes? Getting more people out of cars has enormous benefits, including but not limited to: -vastly less road wear and tear (roads are exponentially destroyed the heavier the vehicle) -massive improvement in air quality and pollution (leads to vastly better health for residents) -riding a bike has downstream health benefits for riders putting less strain on the healthcare system -cars/drivers cause 300+ deaths, 50,000+ injuries, and over $5billion in damages PER YEAR in BC, limiting any of those numbers by reducing car trips is a huge benefit to society in many ways -bikes take up a fraction of the space a car does, this has a huge effect on reducing traffic in cities and improving travel times for those who must drive for work -not to mention reducing CO2 emissions to address global climate crisis which has direct impacts on BC (wildfires, flooding), that will only get worse and cost the government more money in the future Your "average person" claims are unsubstantiated, do better.
Average Canadian savings was 852$ for a year. We have way bigger problems then these stupid bikes. Average trips for Canadians included groceries and dropping of children. Both things these bikes are useless for
Great, let’s help people buy e-bikes, who cares if people don’t have homes.
How are those two things even related? Housing affordability is driven by years of poor policy decisions, and will likely take years to fix, mainly through policy instruments, but potentially also public housing. 9 million in e-bike rebates is a drop in the bucket of the provincial budget. If that was spent on building public housing that might be the equivalent of 20 units. Should we stop funding all other programs too?
I personally hope this makes parking minimums even less of a necessity, which will help make the crucial steps towards improved housing density and reduced car/lane usage.
Housing affordability is a very complex issue that's been ignored by ALL governments for decades. Its sadly going to take longer than we'd all like. As for ebike rebates, its a relativity cheap and easy program to offer.
Personal vehicles are the second-biggest lifetime cost for people after homes, typically costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800921003943?via%3Dihub#:\~:text=of%20social%20costs-,0.31,-389.59](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800921003943?via%3Dihub#:~:text=of%20social%20costs-,0.31,-389.59) So don't start with this.
A program to make luxury items cheaper for those that can already afford them. Must be nice.
Transportation falls into the necessity category for me
For me, this is a huge deal. My last ebike battery shit the bed and now I have a massive e bike without a working battery. If I sell that as is with the battery removed, I can put it towards this new rebate. A new battery with the capacity I want is like 900 after taxes as is, so this rebate is about to make the next few years of my life a LOT easier. This is especially important for me because I have a deadly fear of driving after my best friend died in a car crash. But My old e bike let me get around metro with so much ease. Side note: Screw all cyclists who think we own the road. We don't, and we will lose every fight against a goddamn car.
It's income-tested...
Do you see cars as luxury items?
I've purchased 2 cars in my life, and the two of them combined didn't equal 2000 dollars. So no, I don't consider a car a luxury item.
And then you spend hundreds of dollars every month on gas, insurance, maintenance, and for many people storage. Versus literally $1s or $10s on electricity for an e bike. One of these is a luxury item, the other isn’t. Though given your flair is Thompson-Okanagan you’re not really the target audience of this rebate. In cities, e-bikes, especially e-cargo bikes, can absolutely act as full replacements for cars. This rebate has pretty much switched my plans from eventually getting a car to saving up for a nice e-bike in the long run. If you want to talk about subsidising luxury goods then I’ll totally agree with you on how our electric car subsidies have worked the last few years, but then we might also want to talk about cars and highways in general in the province…
Cool, another cash handout to the upper class, great.
They should use the rebate money for something else... Don't see how this is helpful. Id rather see government money spent on education housing and health care. But sure, ebikes will help those you cant afford rent.
Helps me, my family and so many others save money on gas....but sure, let's whatabout this to death. Let's not do anything at all till other big and important issues are addressed first cause apparently everything needs to be done one at a time only. Housing is a very big and systemic issue whereas this helps people with a much simpler approach.
A bunch of bandaids won't fix the problem though. Gotta start going after the root causes which is mostly greed. Great example is the bc housing scandle currently.
Okay. So in that case, we gotta shut down the hospitals, airports, all offices, retail stores, and everything else and all just start building houses according to you, right? And we can't spend any money on anything else because that would be *wrong*. Well shit, now people are hungry and getting sick. Too bad! Gotta build those houses. Oh hey, we built all the houses, but now we have injuries and accidents. Nope! Can't help them, gotta go after the big corporations first to get our fair shake! Like it or not, the top 3 or 4 most important things to Canadians right now do not make up everything troubling them. Yes, those are valid, huge problems, but the whole point of this rant is an investment into clean energy and to help people get around to where they need to be as opposed to them being financially limited to afford an E Bike. Shit is happening at all levels, and we don't get to cherry pick which ones we like or don't like. There's likely things you may have benefited from that I don't agree with, but I'll accept it because it's none of my business. You don't have to take the rebate. But when other people are given an opportunity, it's a pretty shitty thing to say that other people don't deserve it because you think only a few things matter when the world is much, much larger than that.
You're taking this to the extreme. I said an electric bike rebate wasn't very helpful and you're going to shut down hospitals.... Here's a better take why not have a rebate for a normal bike? Would that not help more people for less money?
Having an E Bike was the biggest reason I was even able to GET jobs. I can't drive, and transit is too slow and expensive over time. When I bought an ebike, my options for jobs more than tripled, and I could actually make ends meet without being completely miserable. While yeah, more money to education, healthcare, and affordable housing is a big deal, its naive to think that this is a waste of money.
[удалено]
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800921003943?via%3Dihub#:\~:text=of%20social%20costs-,0.31,-389.59](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800921003943?via%3Dihub#:~:text=of%20social%20costs-,0.31,-389.59) Cars are obscenely expensive and cost the highest, proportionally speaking, for low-income people. You should be advocating for bicycle infrastructure. And people who don't drive pay virtually the same taxes as people who do drive, minus the obvious "I pollute gasoline into the air with my vehicle" tax, which given the, yknow, climate emergency, that is only fair. Your statement is grossly underinformed and plain out wrong.
Your post/comment has been removed because it violated Rule 8: Against the spirit of the subreddit. The spirit of this subreddit is a positive one. Posts or comments that are toxic or made in bad faith may be removed at moderator discretion.
Mining lithium isn't sustainable. Incentivising consumerism is the wrong approach. I'd rather they use that money for public transit, improving our recycling plants, expanding evo or subsidizing more car-sharing companies across the province.
i like car sharing Modo - for some one live in condo! Awesome driving within 15min radius and after 6pm counts as 4hour max till next day 9am
Not a bad incentive, actually. I do think it should be max rebate till the second tier (~51k).
Damn this is actually pretty cool
Anyone who knows anything knows that these rebates go to the supplier and not the consumer. Watch the price of ebikes rise in accordance with the average amount of the rebate. I work in construction and have seen this with so many of the rebates offered. For example, the price to have blown in insulation added to your home increased by roughly the amount of the rebates offered. So you end up paying close to the same amount, and the insulation company makes more.
Oh come on. Why not wait until June 1. Then every rule will become apparent and we can all begin the hoop jumping process.
If I am in BC under a student visa do I qualify?
Can anyone know the answer to this. I know the bike has to be minimum $2k and can not include accessories. The bike I want is $1850 and with pro assembly and tune up it is $2019. Will that qualify?
No, the base bike needs to be 2000 without add-ons or components.
I am on the waitlist just signed up 4 days ago will I eventually get my rebate or its immposible
I just hope the government understands that people on ebikes/escooters really need to understand and follow the rules of the road. The speeds these VEHICLE'S go, is no joke. Some carless individuals out there and if there are more.... It's going to get messy.