Rebates for Electric Bikes, Scooters, Skateboards & Cars

UPDATES:
March 2024 — Rebates ended after funds were exhausted.
September 2024 — Interest free loans to buy e-bikes were announced but are yet to start.

E-bike, e-scooter & e-skateboard rebate

If you buy an e-bike, e-scooter or e-skateboard new from a Tasmanian-based retailer in the next few months you can apply for a rebate from the Tasmanian government.

The rebate is 12% of the purchase price, up to:

$250 for devices like e-scooters & e-skateboards
$500 for e-bikes
$1,000 for cargo e-bikes

There’s four rounds of $50,000 each. Round 1 starts on 17 November 2023, round 2 on 17 December, round 3 on 17 January and round 4 on 17 February. Each round goes until the money runs out.

There’s lots of rules you can read about in the guidelines.

A woman wearing a helmet rides an electric bicycle along a street past a parked car

Electric vehicle rebate & loan

Electric vehicles are attracting a similar rebate. Buy a new or new-to-Tasmania secondhand EV and apply. If you meet the criteria and you’re one of the first 375 applications you’ll get $2,000 back.

And soon you can get an interest free loan to install a level 2 electric vehicle charger at home under the same Energy Saver Loan Scheme you can already use for solar panels, electric heating and so on.

Our thoughts

The good

The rebates are genuinely likely to be the last push needed for some people to buy an electric means of transport.
Obviously the more our transport is electric, the less carbon emissions.
E-bikes/etc have many other positive effects too — better health, less congestion and so on.
E-bikes are perfect for Hobart hills and the less fit or able among us. Cargo e-bikes can genuinely be a second car replacement for many.
This is apparently the first rebate scheme like this for e-bikes/etc in Australia. Go Tassie! (already NSW & Qld are jealous)

The less good

By far the biggest barrier to people commuting on their bikes is lack of infrastructure like bike lanes. Until the streets are better many people will remain reluctant to ride their bike even if they have one — especially at peak hour in the city.
Much more money is being spent on rebates for EVs than for e-bikes/etc — $750,000 vs $200,000. This is despite it being much more impactful to spend $1,000 or less to reduce the price of a bike by 10% than $2,000 to reduce the price of a car by a few percent.