From the WE-Bike website.
Last year, WSDOT doled out the entire first year of e-bike rebates in one big springtime lottery, but the agency has revamped the “WE-Bike” program to meter out the rebates with awards by lottery on the second Monday of every month for a full year starting April 13.
Any Washington State resident 16 years or older can apply online now. There is no income eligibility, though if selected your income will affect how big the rebate will be. Anyone is eligible for a $300 rebate, but people with a household income at or below 80% of area median income are eligible for a $1,200 rebate. The rebate is applied at the register, which should make it easier for folks who can’t afford to front the full cost of a bike and then wait for a rebate.
If you applied in 2025, you will be to apply again for 2026. But once you apply this time, you will be included automatically in future monthly rounds. Once you verify your email, be sure to complete the pre-application steps, which only take a few minutes.
Rebates can be used at participating retailers with physical locations in Washington State, and can only be used on Class 1, 2 or 3 e-bikes as defined in state law. Note that the state legislature passed clarifications to the e-bike classifications to take effect “immediately.” The Governor signed the law March 23, so it is in effect now (see the text of the certified law here (PDF), which is not yet in the RCW online).
The e-bike rebate program is perhaps the first tangible impact from the new e-bike law. Most e-motos already did not meet the previous e-bike definition, though there were surely some edge cases. Now it is clear that the rebate definitely cannot be used on any throttle-powered device that does not have working pedals (pegs don’t count) or that has power or speed limits that are intended to be easy for the user to override.
The rebates can also be used to purchase adaptive cycles, which is great because those can be prohibitively expensive and are rarely covered by insurance.
