WorkRide · IRD-approved · nothing upfront
Get the bike.
Pay a third less.
Over a year. Interest free.
WorkRide is how your employer buys your commuter e-bike GST-free and sells it to you out of your pre-tax pay. No deposit, no interest, no credit check. Twelve months later it's yours outright.
Why anyone bothers with the paperwork
Two things make this worth doing.
You stop paying retail
On a $4,000 e-bike that's somewhere between roughly $1,300 and $2,500 you don't spend. Not a sale, not a seasonal discount — a structurally lower price you couldn't get by haggling, because it comes from GST and tax you'd otherwise have paid.
It's the single biggest saving available on an e-bike in New Zealand, and it applies to the helmet and lock too.
Twelve months to pay, at no cost
No deposit, no interest, no credit application, no account fees. The amount simply comes off your pay each cycle for a year, and because it's deducted before tax, your take-home barely moves.
Compare that with putting $4,000 on a card or a finance plan and paying interest on top of full retail. Here you're paying less, later, for nothing.
- Nothing upfront. No deposit and no loan in your name.
- You own it at the end. After 12 months the ride is gifted to you.
- Free for your employer. No setup fee, no monthly cost, no FBT.
- Around 2,000 NZ organisations already offer it, councils and Crown entities included.
What you can put on the scheme
Two e-bike ranges and two scooters,
all inside the 300W rule.
Watt Wheels
Kiwi-owned and designed here for here — 300W Bafang motors, Samsung cells, alloy frames built for wet roads and steep hills, and spare parts stocked in New Zealand rather than shipped in when something breaks. Compliant with the scheme's power limit by design, not by workaround.
Scout — folds down, 20 x 4 fat tyres, hydraulic discs. The one for park-and-ride commutes and small flats.
Bene — Gates belt drive and an internal gear hub. Silent, no chain oil on your trousers.
Bighorn / Greenwood — for anyone whose commute has a hill in it and whose weekend has a trail.
From ${{ PRICE }} · WorkRide-eligible
Vamos
An Australian commuter brand built around comfort rather than speed — step-through and wave frames, Shimano 8-speed, hydraulic disc brakes, suspension fork and seatpost. The kind of bike you ride in work clothes.
El Rapido — the everyday commuter, two frame sizes.
El Doblez — folds in seconds, for anyone finishing the trip on a train or stashing it under a desk.
From $3,990 · WorkRide-eligible
Supplied locked to 250W. Vamos bikes are delivered with motor output locked at 250W, which keeps them inside New Zealand's 300W e-bike limit and eligible for WorkRide.
Prefer two small wheels?
Scooters can go on the scheme too, as long as they're inside both limits: 300W and wheels under 355mm. Two of ours qualify — the Segway E3 Pro and the InMotion Air Pro, both supplied locked to a 300W output limit. If your commute is short, flat, and ends with the thing folded under a desk, these are the sharpest way to use your WorkRide benefit.
Our Ouxi bikes and the rest of the scooter range aren't on this list, and that's deliberate — they're over the 300W limit, so they can't go through the scheme. Brilliant machines. Just not this deal. If you're not sure what suits your commute, tell us your route, your distance, and where the ride has to live at each end. We'll shortlist two or three and confirm they're eligible before you take anything to payroll.
Start to finish, about a week
How to get on one
-
Check your employer is signed up
Around 2,000 NZ organisations already are. If yours isn't, it's free to join and takes their payroll team a few minutes — send them the employer section below.
-
Pick your ride with us
In store or online. We'll confirm it's WorkRide-eligible before anything goes near your payroll team, and quote it to WorkRide at the price you're seeing.
-
We raise it on the WorkRide system
You give us your WorkRide ID, we enter the ride, and WorkRide sends the salary sacrifice agreement to you and your employer to e-sign.
-
Collect it
Once your employer approves, WorkRide issues a pick-up code and you come and get it. No payment from you at this point.
-
Ride it for 12 months. Then keep it.
The sacrifice runs its course on your payslip, WorkRide gets in touch about next steps, and the ride is gifted to you.
For the ones who want to see the working
Where the money actually comes from
There are two savings stacked on top of each other, and neither of them is a discount we're absorbing.
The GST comes out. Your employer buys the ride from us and claims the GST back, then supplies it to you GST-exclusive. That 15% never lands on you.
Then it's paid pre-tax. The balance comes off your gross pay before PAYE, so you're buying with money that was never taxed. Depending on your income, KiwiSaver rate and student loan, some of those deductions shift across too.
Put together, that's WorkRide's published 32–63% offset. At the end of the 12 months WorkRide gifts the ride to you and it's yours outright.
The awkward conversation, pre-answered
"I'll have to ask my boss."
Usually that's the last you hear of it — not because anyone said no, but because nobody knew what they were being asked. So here's the whole ask, in four lines you can forward.
If your payroll team wants to talk it through with someone who's done it before, give them our number. We'll take the call.
- It's free to join and free to run. No setup fee, no monthly charge.
- There's no fringe benefit tax to account for. WorkRide operates under binding IRD product rulings.
- The employer is reimbursed in full through the salary sacrifice over the 12 months.
- WorkRide carries the compliance and the paperwork, not your payroll team.
Get this bit wrong and the whole thing falls over
Not every ride qualifies.
We'll tell you which ones do.
WorkRide is a commuting benefit, so the rules follow NZTA's low-powered vehicle definitions. We sell plenty of machines that are brilliant and plenty that are fast — but only the compliant ones can go through the scheme, and we won't put you or your employer in a spot by pretending otherwise.
E-bikes
Combined maximum continuous power output of the electric motor must not exceed 300 watts. This is a limit on watts (W), not battery capacity (Wh).
E-scooters
Motor output must not exceed 300W and wheels must be under 355mm in diameter. Most high-performance scooters are well over the power limit — we stock two that are supplied locked to 300W and qualify.
Not eligible
Electric dirt bikes, e-motos and high-power performance scooters. Above 300W they're legally mopeds — registration, WOF and a licence — so they can't go through WorkRide.
Questions we get every week
The fine print, in plain words
Is WorkRide actually legitimate?
Yes. WorkRide operates under binding product rulings from Inland Revenue and has been running in New Zealand for several years. Salary sacrifice is the same mechanism used for company vehicles and health insurance — WorkRide applies it to commuter rides. Around 2,000 NZ organisations use it, including councils and Crown entities.
What does the 32–63% offset actually mean?
It's the effective reduction in what the ride costs you, compared with buying it out of your take-home pay. Where you land in that range depends on your income, your KiwiSaver rate and whether you have a student loan. The range applies to employees earning over $53,501 a year with a valid salary sacrifice in place. Run the official estimator for your own numbers.
My employer isn't signed up. What now?
Send them the employer section on this page, or get in touch and we'll approach them for you. It's free for them to register and there's no ongoing cost, which is usually the end of the objection.
Can I put a high-performance scooter or an e-dirt bike on WorkRide?
No. WorkRide is a commuting benefit and follows NZTA's low-powered vehicle rules: 300W maximum for e-bikes, and 300W plus wheels under 355mm for e-scooters. Anything above that is legally a moped and can't go through the scheme. We're happy to sell you one — we just can't do it through WorkRide, and any retailer telling you otherwise is putting your employer's directors at risk.
What happens if I leave my job before the 12 months are up?
You don't lose the bike, and you're not stuck at your job. Your employer notifies WorkRide and approves ending the lease, then WorkRide contacts you directly to sort out where it lands.
In most cases you settle what's left and keep the ride — either as a deduction from your final net pay, or by paying WorkRide directly. Under some agreements, WorkRide Plus in particular, you may instead have the option of returning the equipment for a reasonable return and delivery fee.
Which options apply depends on the agreement your employer is on, so check that with your payroll team before you sign. The one thing worth knowing up front: leaving is a settlement conversation, not a penalty.
Can I use WorkRide on a sale-priced ride?
Yes. Sale and clearance stock qualifies just like anything else, and the scheme applies to the sale price rather than the original ticket. That stacks: you get the markdown first, then the WorkRide offset on top of it. If something you want has just gone on special, that's the best possible moment to raise it with us.
What about helmets, locks and lights?
Helmets and locks can go on the same benefit, so they come out of your pre-tax pay at the same offset as the ride itself. It's the cheapest a decent helmet and a decent lock will ever be, and it means you ride away sorted rather than making a second trip. Tell us when we're raising the order — they need to be on it from the start, not added later.
Tell us where you ride from.
We'll do the rest.
Send us your suburb, your workplace and roughly what you want to spend. We'll confirm what's eligible, check whether your employer is already registered, and get the paperwork moving.
WorkRide is operated by WorkRide Ltd; Electric Scooter Shop is a participating retailer and is not the scheme provider. The GST treatment described reflects the employer purchasing the ride and claiming the input tax credit; it is not a separate discount from Electric Scooter Shop. Offset figures are indicative and depend on your salary, KiwiSaver contribution rate, student loan status and the price of the ride; the 32–63% range applies to employees earning over $53,501 annually with a valid salary sacrifice arrangement in place. Salary sacrifice reduces your gross pay, which can affect other salary-linked entitlements. This page is general information, not tax or financial advice — check with your payroll team or your own adviser before entering an arrangement. Eligibility is determined by WorkRide against IRD and NZTA requirements.