The California Air Resources Board will finally launch its e-bike incentive program later this month. The first launch window will provide up to $3 million for about 1,500 e-bike vouchers to "income-eligible" California residents, with future vouchers available in the coming months. Applicants must complete an online video safety course before they can use the voucher.
CARB will accept applications starting at 6 pm on December 18 and will process them in the order received "until the vouchers are exhausted." If other e-bike incentive programs are any indication, they will go quickly.
Eligible applicants must be at least 18 years old, with an income of 300 percent of the federal poverty level or less. That means, for example, a one-person household cannot make more than $45,180, and a four-person household no more than $93,600. More information on eligibility can be found here.
Applicants are encouraged to look at the Implementation Manual provided by CARB and ensure they have the proper documents ready to submit once applications go live. Income eligibility must be proven via any of the documents listed on page 16 of the manual (such as tax forms). Although the website encourages people to create a log-in now, before the launch window, it's not clear how to do so.
Streetsblog asked CARB for clarification and will update this post when they respond.
Vouchers can be worth up to $2K, depending on an applicant's income, and must be used to purchase approved e-bike models only.
This program has been a long time coming.
