Nova Scotia announces rebates for e-bikes to promote sustainability, exercise
The Government of Nova Scotia says that their rebates will improve energy-efficiency and allow more people to purchase e-bikes and electric vehicles.
The bike you see me riding on in the video above is no ordinary bike — it is an e-bike equipped with a hidden battery and a motor. You can expect to see a growing number of e-bikes across Nova Scotia in the coming months due to a rebate program that the provincial government has implemented.
An announcement from the Government of Nova Scotia in February 2021 said that it will invest “$19 million in rebates to support low-income families in making their homes more comfortable and energy-efficient and help Nova Scotians buy clean, reliable electric vehicles. It will also move toward a new renewable energy standard, with 80 per cent of Nova Scotia’s energy coming from renewable sources by 2030.”
The provincial government will provide a $500 rebate to individuals that purchase an e-bike that costs $1,200 or more and is purchased from a store in Nova Scotia.
E-bikes are designed to assist the rider, instead of powering itself. “You still have to pedal it, so these are what they consider class one or class two e-bikes, it's not a throttle, so it's not like a motor bike where you can just give it gas. This literally amplifies how much force you put down into the pedals and it'll amplify that up to a max of 32 km/h," says Andrew Feenstra, the owner of Cyclesmith, a bike store in Halifax.
"We believe the bike can solve a lot of the world's issues whether it's for fitness or for transportation or the green movement, whatever it is, the bike can solve those problems.”
See the video above to take a look at how the e-bike I rode handled the streets.
Thumbnail credit: Maskot. Maskot. Getty Images.
