Last time I checked in on the City of Portland electric bike rebate program, they told us we could expect a soft launch late summer/early fall. Well I’m happy to report they’ve kept their promise!
In a major update to this long-awaited program, the City has come up with a name for the program — “Portland Rides” — launched a new website and a soft launch of the program is set to begin officially this coming Monday, September 29th when the application period for the first batch of rebates begins.
To refresh your memory, the e-bike rebate program was adopted by City Council as part of the Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund’s (PCEF) Capital Investment Plan in June 2024. The plan is to use $20 million from that fund (which comes from a tax on large corporations) to support an estimated 6,000 new e-bike purchases over the next five years. In addition to helping Portlanders afford these new vehicles, the program will train 50 mechanics and invest in infrastructure for charging and bike parking at multi-family apartment buildings.
According to the City of Portland, the soft launch will target Portland Community College students who will be eligible for a $1,900 rebate. The rebate is split between $1,600 off a “standard Class 1 e-bike” and $300 for “essential bike accessories” (helmet, lock, lights, and so on). The window for rebate applications opens Monday September 29th and closes October 15th. A total of 250-300 rebates will be made available during the soft launch.
Rebates will be redeemable from participating bike shops that are required to have a brick-and-mortar presence in Portland and provide both sales and repair service.
I also learned today that the City of Portland has awarded the contract to administer the program to Resource Innovations, a “women-led, purpose built” firm that, “provides consulting and program management for the energy sector, helping utilities, government agencies, and system operators to achieve decarbonization goals and improve energy equity through services like clean energy transition, grid modernization, and electric vehicle integration.” The company that will process applications and rebates is APTIM, an environmental consulting firm. Portland State University will be the program’s third-party evaluator.
The full program that will be open to all qualifying Portland residents is set to launch in March 2026.
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So cool!! How will they go about training mechanics? Do you know if there is an application for that?
Crikey, the PCEF slush fund’s off the leash again — and this time it’s chucking e-bikes at uni students like Oprah on a sugar high. “You get a bike! And you get a bike!”
They’ve slapped a shiny new logo on it and called it “Portland Rides” — which sounds more like a dodgy rideshare app or the name of a midlife crisis tattoo shop than a serious city program. But hey, branding is half the battle when you’re throwing $20 million of corporate guilt money around, right?
So what’s the master plan? Hand $1,900 in “rebates” to students (who may or may not ride anything other than a Lime scooter), cross fingers they don’t flog the bikes for cash, and hope the whole thing doesn’t turn into Portland’s version of Facebook Marketplace’s hottest resale category.
And just to keep things spicy, they’ve tapped yet another untested “women-led, purpose-built” nonprofit to run the show — because nothing says “fiscal responsibility” like handing the wheel to an outfit no one’s ever heard of with a mission statement longer than a Bunnings receipt.
Of course, there’s a third-party evaluator (cheers, PSU) — because when your scheme’s likely to go pear-shaped, best to pay someone to tell you it’s going great. Bit like hiring your mate to judge your pub trivia night.
Meanwhile, the actual shops doing the grunt work — you know, selling and fixing bikes — just have to smile, nod, and hope the city doesn’t stuff up the rebate paperwork like it’s a Centrelink form.
All up, it’s a classic Portland special: overfunded, under-thought, full of buzzwords and destined for a colourful write-up in some future auditor’s report
So what would you propose as an alternative, exactly?
I would prefer to see a local tax rebate for any bike purchase. It would be significantly cheaper to administer. If you add up the numbers noted above, it looks like this program for 6,000 e-bikes is going to have huge overhead costs.
Okay but budget cuts everywhere right? HOW are they supposed to justify cutting programs when the money is still there?
Yeah I’m sure the local bike shops are going to be really bummed with the paperwork to get thousands of new bikes sold.
The worry about reselling is misplaced. Even if it happened (and I don’t expect it), they have to resell at used bike prices. I.e. a heavy discount. But again, I doubt it’ll really happen, and there will be follow-up surveys I think.
Funny how mad you are about that nonprofit being women led. Says more about you than anything else I think.
Ah, the old “They’ll just sell the bikes for cash” argument again. This comes up at EVERY e-bike rebate program launch. Has it actually happened? Do you make the same argument for car rebate programs? I remember you calling this a “tax on the employed” in a previous story.
Shawne, Let’s not lose sight of something more pressing: the PCEF tax is a regressive tax that hits low-income folks hardest. While it was sold to voters as a tax on big corporations, those costs are passed on to consumers, particularly in stores like Winco, Fred Meyer, and Safeway, where low-income shoppers are most likely to shop. This tax raises prices on everyday goods, and it’s people with limited budgets who end up paying the price.
As for the concern about flipping bikes for cash—it’s a valid concern. With massive subsidies like these, the incentive to exploit the system is significant, and it’s not unreasonable to expect that some people will try to resell bikes for cash, undermining the program’s goals.
And here’s the kicker: Portland is facing a massive $11 million budget deficit, struggling to provide basic municipal services. Yet, it can still blow money on subsidies like this? At a time when the city can’t even fund public safety, bike lane maintenance, or homeless services adequately, PCEF needs to go back to the voters. The reality is that it’s not sustainable when the city is already stretched thin.
Ultimately, while the stated goal of these programs is to promote cleaner transportation, we can’t overlook the PCEF tax’s impact. It’s a regressive burden on people already struggling to get by, making everyday goods more expensive. If we’re going to spend this kind of money, let’s make sure it’s sustainable and truly benefits everyone, not just make the wealthier and more privileged feel good about “progress”.
People were actually doing that for a time during the COVID years, when rebates were big on EVs and Teslas and certain rare EV brands were holding their value on the used market. That, of course, is no longer a thing, as used EV prices have absolutely tanked.
I think the issue here is that a $1,600 rebate on a “Class 1” ebike is going to pay for just about the entire cost on a mid-range class 1 model. Compared to the EV rebates we had on cars, which were less than 25% of the purchase price, this leaves a lot more room for bad actors to play.
More info on the firm here. They appear to be based out of Chicago:
https://www.resource-innovations.com/about-us/leadership
Lots of good stock photos.
That equates to about $3,300 per new e-bike, but the end user monetary subsidy is just $1,900. I think we need more clarity on the cost to train the mechanics and how much infrastructure they are adding. It seems like a lot of overhead here.
Love it. I already have a very nice e-bike but the more people that ride them the better. They really are life changing.