alright, switching gears here a little bit cheaper.
E bikes and electric motorcycles may soon be arriving here
in the US and it would be thanks to the
build back better act, which includes increased tax credits
for both of the eco friendly vehicles. The move
would lead to a new phase for our country and
its acceptance of the tv industry. It's one supported
by the biking advocacy group, People for bikes,
which is urging the Senate to pass the bill by
the end of the year. The organization's director of
Federal affairs, Noah, by Nyan is joining us
now here on closing bell. No, thank you
so much for being on the show. Can you
offer some more details about the e bike ac?
Um, that is within the build back, better
bill and then the tax credit that it would create
for e bikes if it is actually passed. Yeah
, thanks for having me happy to chat about it
. So, the E bike act was introduced earlier
this year to create a tax credit to make e
bikes electric bicycles more affordable for more americans. Um
, that's because e bikes are the most emission lys
form of active transportation. Um, and, and
make it easy and efficient to get around town to
get up hills that shrinks distances, You can add
cargo to it for your kids on the back.
Um, and that was really the intent of the
bike back is to help help more americans leave the
car at home and use e bikes for short short
trips, which are the majority of trips in the
U. S. The build back better act that
passed in the House on friday uh included a version
of the E bike act version of the tax credit
. Um that, you know, it was passed
as part of the broader bill, which is super
exciting. Of course, the senate needs to do
a lot of work to turn that bill into law
and send it to the president biden's desk. Um
, but the the version in the build back better
act actually looks like a$900 cap, a 30%
tax credit Um for qualifying new electric bicycles that cost
less than$4,000. Well, we focused on these
tax credits around electric vehicles. We've kind of focused
mostly on cars and SUVs and kind of the traditional
vehicles. So I'm really glad that we're doing this
kind of segment on e bikes. Want to get
your thoughts on what this could do, these tax
credits could do for the e bike industry here in
the US. Yeah, we're looking at you but
still as a technology that only, you know,
a lot of early adopters are taking advantage of of
course that's been growing exponentially in the past year,
year and a half. I'm sure if you've ever
been near a school in the morning, now that
you bite drop off line is as almost as long
as the the car line for drop offs, which
is really exciting to see. Um but of course
we want to make sure from the bike industry's perspective
that this is a technology and a product that's available
to a majority of americans who want to lower their
carbon footprint and get around town faster and do everything
that they would normally do in a short car trip
by bike because it's healthier, it's fast, it's
efficient, you're not in traffic as long as you
have the right bike infrastructure, it's really safe and
it's fun. It makes, you know, moving
without emitting carbon fun. Um, and that's,
I think something supremely unique to the e bike is
an emission list form of transportation. You mentioned the
right bike infrastructure and I wonder if you can talk
about that a little bit in terms of how critical
it is that we pair or the legislators pair the
tax incentives and the potential rise of more electric bikes
on the road with actual physical infrastructure that protects bicyclist
. Absolutely. It's so important that this tax credit
is paired with infrastructure funding, which we saw a
significant increase in infrastructure funding for bike lanes, trails
, sidewalks, um, safety features, lights in
the infrastructure bill that President biden signed into law just
a couple weeks ago and that's, that's critical.
But the build back better act also includes um,
you know, billions of dollars in grants for infrastructure
to support climate and a neighborhood access and equity and
we certainly see bike infrastructure as, as a way
for communities to meet those goals to be more resilient
as climate change really affects a lot more communities.
Um, and I look at bike infrastructure as a
way to bring people together and make it easier to
get full work, a sense of services Really quickly
. I only have like 10 or 15 seconds here
, but I want to get your thoughts in terms
of, you know, the forecast for growth that
we will see kind of what this tax incentive again
, if this build back better plan is passed and
the infrastructure that we're anticipating to come to fruition for
the safety and kind of bike infrastructure, what's the
growth that we could see in electric bikes here in
the us? Well if 2020 and 2021 or any
indicator, it's just continued adoption and sales of e
bikes. Um we saw record sales in 2020 as
people look for ways to get around town safely during
the pandemic and hopefully that paired with an exponential increase
in funding for infrastructure, will, will really take
us through an e bike revolution in the United States
in every community most of last year, I actually
utilize an e bike e bike as a mode of
transportation instead of kind of mass transit during the pandemic
. Um, so I certainly firsthand I've seen some
of that adoption, thank you so much for being
here. Noah Bonaya, director of federal Affairs for
people for bikes