Michigan Dems OK $3M for e-bike discounts. GOP says plan is off the rails

[DudleySmith]

Michigan Dems OK $3M for e-bike discounts. GOP says plan is off the rails | Bridge Michigan

Michiganders could take hundreds of dollars off a new e-bike purchase price under a House budget championed by Democrats but panned by Republicans.

www.bridgemi.com

LANSING — A proposed electric bicycle incentive program that could dramatically cut prices through income-based “discount vouchers” received nearly $3 million in funding in a budget plan approved by the Michigan House Wednesday.

The provision, part of a larger $81 billion state budget proposal, was championed by Democrats as a "future-facing" push for new mobility options but panned by Republicans as “wasteful spending.”

Well, EV bikes are a lot cheaper than subsiding Elon Musk's hobby cars for rich people, anyway. But we know the e bikes will suddenly double and triple in price.

Whats the subsidy on Teslas now? $25 K? You can buy outright over 20 decent ebikes for that. $3 mil would buy around 2,400 e bikes versus maybe 30 Teslas.

Probably won't pass so no need to get all whiney n stuff.

 

[The Duke]

Ya know, PEVS are much more viable than electric cars that have to meet NHTSA regulations.

Once tons of steel are added, that adds weight that the batteries have to push, so there has to be more of them and it uses more energy, and that adds more weight, and then there's heat and AC and headlights. At a certain point it becomes inefficient.

Now an electric TukTuk taxi? That's doable as the day is long.

How many hundreds of dollars is an electric bicycle supposed to cost anyway?

I think I saw one for $350 last night.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

Do people not know that an e-Bike is cheating?

 

[DudleySmith]

Ya know, PEVS are much more viable than electric cars that have to meet NHTSA regulations.

Once tons of steel are added, that adds weight that the batteries have to push, so there has to be more of them and it uses more energy, and that adds more weight, and then there's heat and AC and headlights. At a certain point it becomes inefficient.

Now an electric TukTuk taxi? That's doable as the day is long.

How many hundreds of dollars is an electric bicycle supposed to cost anyway?

I think I saw one for $350 last night.

They're not good for all weather, though, and we would still need to wean ourselves off of Red China and its exploding batteries fire hazard problems. I think an LG factory here in the states would cure that issue.