Welcome To The Year Of The E-Bike

With a boost from a growing number of cities and states, the souped up two-wheelers are increasingly displacing cars for short trips — and outselling EVs.

_{By Rina Torchinsky, Forbes Staff}

Last Tuesday, at 11 a.m. local time, the city and county of Denver put the latest batch of applications for e-bike rebates online. By 11:07, all 1,100 of them were gone.

That’s par for the course, says Sarah Thorne, a senior program manager at the Colorado Energy Office, who snagged a $900 Denver rebate herself last year within two minutes of a similar portal opening. After applying the rebate, she shelled out about $1,400 for an e-cargo bike that she uses for trips to Costco and the local grocery store and to pick up her one-and-a-half year old daughter from daycare – effectively replacing what would have been car trips, with the “minivan” of e-bikes. “Honestly, I don’t really drive anymore,” says Thorne. “I pretty much use my e-bike for everything.” She even relies on her e-bike for her six mile commute to work, which she used to do via bus.