The years-long effort to roll out a statewide e-bike incentive program for Californians has ended, not with a bang but with a whimper. After four years and two disastrous attempts to distribute e-bike vouchers that ended with the website crashing, and the program manager under state investigation for mismanagement of funds, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has pulled the plug on the whole program. The remaining $17M allocated for e-bike incentives have been rolled into CARB’s Clean Cars 4 All program.
The Background
In 2021 (a more flush budget year), the California state legislature set aside $10M to fund e-bike incentives. While not a huge amount in a state of 40 million people, it seemed a solid start. The next several years were spent discussing the specifics of the program, including how much the vouchers would be for and who would be eligible for.
Delays
This initial period of optimism, which we covered on the blog, was followed by multiple years of unmet promises and delays upon delays. By mid-2024, three years after the funding was allocated, there was still “no specific timeline” and reporting was already surfacing that Pedal Ahead, the organization chosen to administer the program, was under state investigation for faking program data. Advocates began to worry about the viability of the program
Disastrous Rollout
At long last, a public launch window was announced, where eligible people could apply for a voucher. When this opened in December 2024, the website was overwhelmed by traffic, with people reporting that they were unable to even fill out the application due to slow service. It was widely hailed “a mess.” A second application window in April 2025 went no better, with the website crashing and not a single voucher being distributed. Finally, a few vouchers were given away in May, and then communication went dark.
Shift in Funding
It appears that CARB essentially gave up the program and used the remaining funds to backfill a deficit in the Clean Cars 4 All program, which helps low-income families trade in old cars for electric vehicles. While this program is a worthwhile one (and it actually permits money to be spent on e-bikes, though very little ends up doing so) the fact that the much benighted e-bike incentive program was so badly mismanaged and then plundered to fund car purchases is a damning indictment of CARB’s lack of attention and oversight. The agency’s own 2022 scoping plan states, in no uncertain terms, that Californians will need to drive less even as they ramp up purchases of electric cars. But the failure of the e-bike incentive program strongly suggests that those in leadership positions never really saw the program as an important one, and were willing to let it die a quiet death.
What’s Next
As cities like Denver continue to fund their e-bike rebate program (the city of 700k has given out over 15,000 vouchers since 2022), there is no plan to reinstate the program here in California. Certain regional power companies are issuing rebates, but none are available to Marin residents at this time. We will keep pushing at the regional level and with our partners at the state level. California has given out nearly $1.5 billion to help drivers upgrade to an electric car. The fact that the state bungled an effort to give out less than 1% of this amount for e-bikes is, frankly, an embarrassment and one that needs to be remedied.