Portland, Oregon will soon have its own e-bike rebate program. Portland’s program will be run by the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund Climate Investment Plan (PCEF). The plan, which was implemented in 2023 calls for $750 million to be invested in programs for black and indigenous people of color, as well as low-income Portlanders, all with the intent to fight climate change.
Of that $750 million, $20 million has been designated for an e-bike rebate program. Compare that with the $1 million that Atlanta set aside.
The Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) will administer the program and they have been authorized to hire staff and/or organizations to implement the program.
Seetha Ream-Rao leads the transportation decarbonization programs for the PCEF. In presenting the program to the city council she framed it as being, “Absolutely essential to meeting Portland’s net zero goals.”
To bolster her case, she cited a recent Oregon Household Activities Survey that revealed the average daily trip in the Portland metro area was just 6 mi. and 80 percent of those trips are conducted by car (that 20 percent are conducted by means other than vehicle is impressive).
Ream-Rao said, “That [distance] is well within the range of any e-bike on the market today and one of the biggest opportunities for carbon reductions.”
The rebate program will administer funds through a website where applicants will be awarded a voucher that can then be used at the point-of-sale with an approved e-bike retailer. No word if direct-to-consumer brands will be approved to participate.
In addition to the rebate, the program will fund the training of 50 new e-bike mechanics. The other provision of the program will create a pilot program aimed at residents of multifamily buildings to create secure storage and charging facilities on the building’s ground floor.
There will be three tiers to the rebate program; standard e-bikes will receive the base rebate (amount still to be determined). The second tier will be aimed at cargo e-bikes; those recipients will receive the base rebate plus an additional $750. The third tier will serve riders with a disability who need an adaptive e-bike and they will receive a percentage of the cost of the e-bike, capped at a certain amount.
Some rebates will be set aside for middle-income households, but the amount will be less than what will be provided to low-income families.
Every voucher will come with an additional $200 “safety incentive” that will allow people to buy the essentials people need to use an e-bike for transportation, such as a helmet and lock.
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