Electronic bikes are popular and have a positive impact in reducing emissions. Newer versions address safety concerns. But, unfortunately, the issue has become highly political and Republicans, so far, have been effective in blocking all proposed tax credit initiatives.
The federal “E-Bike Act” would provide a refundable federal tax credit of 30% of the purchase price of a new electric bike up to $1,500 credit. An earlier version of this tax credit was a part of the Build Back Better bill passed by the U.S. House of representatives and then blocked by Republican Senators. The earlier version of the bill was also originally part of the Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022 but was pushed out by Republican lawmakers prior to passage of the law.
The latest version of the bill reintroduced this week in 2023 appears to be endorsed solely by Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate. While electric bikes are popular with voters, the target market is viewed as primarily younger, urban and Democratic. They reduce use of petroleum-based fuel from the economies of primarily Republican legislative districts. It seems unlikely that we will see passage of the new bill under the current Congress. The latest federal tax proposal news reported yesterday from the Senate focuses on cutting taxes for the upper 1% of the population. These measures seem to be focused on pleasing donors, not electronic bike riders.
My presumption is that we will not see passage of an electric bike tax credit until both the House and Senate are under Democratic leadership. In the meanwhile. state initiatives are likely to be more successful and several Democratic-led states have issued or are making positive progress on state tax credits for electronic bikes.
A side note: While searching for general information for this article
, I found much online tax misinformation on the topic of tax credits for electronic bikes. While I am accustomed to tax information on social media, I was surprised to see the amount of misinformation on so many web pages. I suspect that some of this misinformation is AI-generated.
