BC’s e-bike rebates boost affordability, health and sustainable mobility

Income-based rebates for electric bicycles are helping British Columbians drive less, save money, and generate revenue for the province, a new study has found. The rebates also make e-bikes more accessible to lower-income households.

UBC researchers led by Dr. Alex Bigazzi, associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, surveyed 1,004 participants in the BC Electric Bike Rebate Program over a year. The program, launched in June 2023 by the Ministry of Transportation and Transit, offered rebates of $350 to $1,400 depending on income.

“E-bikes make cycling a practical travel option for a wider range of people and trips, but the purchase cost can be a substantial barrier, especially for those with low income”, said Dr. Bigazzi. “Our study found income-based rebates made sustainable travel an attractive option for many people who were not previously cycling.”

Rebates driving new e-bike adoption

Up to 60 per cent of participants said they would not have bought an e-bike without the rebate. The study also found the rebates were more effective at encouraging new purchases among recipients with lower incomes. 

After one year, rebate recipients increased their e-bike use by an average of 40 kilometres per week and reduced their motor vehicle use by 17 kilometres per week. Participants most often swapped out a car journey for an e-bike ride, particularly for commuting, errands and shopping. Exercise and leisure trips made up a smaller share of e-bike use, especially among lower-income recipients.

Notably, 87 per cent of participants still had access to a car after their e-bike purchase, showing that e-bikes more often complemented rather than replaced car ownership, allowing households to be less reliant on driving.

Benefits for people and the environment

The switch to e-bikes supported by the rebate program brought wide-ranging benefits:

• Emissions from travel dropped 17 per cent per year overall, equivalent to 1,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide
• Travel costs fell 12 per cent
• Physical activity during travel rose 13 per cent
• Rebates cut e-bike purchase costs by 43 per cent, with the greatest benefits going to lower-income households
• $6.5 million in rebates generated $8.7 million in new retailer revenue.

“E-bikes bring benefits to users in cost, mobility and physical activity,” said study co-investigator Dr. Meghan Winters of Simon Fraser University. “But the impacts of this rebate program are also more broad, with societal benefits of reduced emissions, replacement of car trips, and generated revenue.”

The researchers estimated that the almost 5,000 rebate recipients in the program saved approximately $2.3 million in travel costs annually despite an overall increase in the amount of weekly travel.

Comparing these results to an earlier study on e-bike rebates in Saanich, the research team found similar drops in car use and increases in e-biking. They suggest a few potential tweaks to BC's rebate program that could make it more effective: shifting eligibility from personal to household income to reach those who need it most, partnering with employers to target commuters, prioritizing regions with limited public transit, and adjusting rebate values to improve cost efficiency while keeping e-bikes accessible to low-income households.

“We found it interesting how often people reported fun or enjoyment as key factors in their sustained shift to e-bike use after one year, which are aspects of travel largely ignored in transportation engineering and planning” said Dr. Bigazzi.

The study was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) through the Mobilizing Justice Partnership Grant (principal investigator Dr. Steven Farber, University of Toronto), in partnership with the BC Ministry of Transportation and Transit and the District of Saanich.

Read the full report: https://reactlab.civil.ubc.ca/bc-ebike-incentives/