The provincial government is rolling out new rebates on electric bikes starting Thursday in an attempt to lower the cost of purchase of the bikes.
Rebates are being offered on approved e-bikes based on a person's income, with rebates ranging from $350 to a maximum of $1,400. Unlike previous programs, there is no need to scrap a car to access the rebate.
“E-Bikes have been a strong seller for us, continually growing for the last six, seven, eight years, so we already have a strong e-bike sales business, but this I think is going to add another dimension to it,” said Garry Norkum, owner of Cyclepath in Kelowna.
“Those people who couldn’t afford it, it was a little too tight for them budget wise, now they can make up to $1,400.”
Purchasers will still need to pay for the bike upfront.
"They have to register to pre-qualify for the amount of subsidy or rebate they’re going to get. And then they come in and purchase their bike," Norkum continued, explaining the e-bike must cost more than $2,000 and come from a B.C. bike shop or an online B.C. bike shop.
"There are some qualifications there, which is good because it supports the BC economy, BC retailers, and it keeps the money within B.C.," Norkum said.
Cyclepath said on Wednesday they had at least 20 e-bikes on hold for customers waiting for the rebate to kick in.
“People are information gathering, they’re finding bikes they’re interested in, they’re putting a deposit on it to hold it, and so we’re spending a lot of time with people that hadn’t been considering an e-bike and now they are, so yeah, we’ve definitely been a lot busier in the past few days because of that.”
More information on the rebate can be found online.
