The City of Denver pumped the brakes on its popular e-bike rebate program for the rest of 2022, according to a news release.

The city’s Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency launched the e-bike rebate program earlier this year to assist with climate and sustainability initiatives.

The program offered applicants $400 for an e-bike, or $900 for an e-cargo bike. For those who were income-qualified, it’s $1,200 for an e-bike, or $1,700 for an e-cargo bike. Each month when the rebates were offered, they were all snapped up within a day. In July, the city’s system was so swamped with applicants — only income-qualified applications were considered.

It’s expected to start again in early 2023, according to the release. An updated version of the program design in 2023 will make participation easier and increase access.

E-bike vouchers were offered through the Denver’s Climate Action Rebate Program, which will continue to provide refunds for solar panels, electrical panel upgrades and income-qualified rebates for heat pumps.

The e-bike program added 4,401 e-bikes to Denver and spurred $8.6 million of spending into the local economy, according to the release. Income-qualified residents represented 68% of the program funding, equal to 2,185 rebates.

Those who have already received an e-bike voucher can still use it at participating shop within 60 days of issuance.

“We’re honored to be a part of transforming the way Denver wants to move around,” Grace Rink, Denver’s chief climate officer, said in the release. “We exhausted three years’ worth of funding in six short months, and we’re eager to bring back an expanded program that will serve more Denverites.”

Gabe Robles, the general manager at Elevation Cycles in Cherry Creek, said they saw an increase in sales of e-bikes since the rebates began. While the rebates seemed to aid in sales, Robles does not necessarily think the pause on the program will have a significant impact on e-bike sales due to the awareness around the product now.

“I don’t really foresee them [sales of e-bikes] going down now that it’s paused. However, I think it’s definitely sparked a lot of people’s interest just in general in the e-bike world,” Robles said. “I think that there are some lower income families that might not be supported in the way they need to without the rebates, but I think overall the rebate kind of did the job of building some awareness of what you can do with an e-bike, replacing your car, just getting around town.”

There are also e-bike’s available in several neighborhoods for free across Denver. These are offered by the Northeast Transportation Connections and West Corridor TMA.

More than 3,000 applications were submitted to the program within the first three weeks of the program beginning this year.