The average American drives ~14,000 miles per year. People who get electric cargo bikes tend to be able to substitute the bike for about 20% of those, or 2800 miles. Counting gas and vehicle depreciation you can expect to spend $0.65/mile to drive, so choosing the bike avoids $1820 in expenses. You’ll probably need to spend $100 or so on things like electricity, replacement tires, chain lubricants, and maybe a shifter cable or something in that time, so you end up with about $300 in your pocket you didn’t have, along with a big smile.
You’ll then end up with around $1800/year for the useful life of the bike.
People get them because the modestly higher speeds make it possible to pull off the trips they’re trying to do within their time budget. That electric assist roughly doubles the number of people for whom a bike is an option.
The average American drives ~14,000 miles per year. People who get electric cargo bikes tend to be able to substitute the bike for about 20% of those, or 2800 miles. Counting gas and vehicle depreciation you can expect to spend $0.65/mile to drive, so choosing the bike avoids $1820 in expenses. You’ll probably need to spend $100 or so on things like electricity, replacement tires, chain lubricants, and maybe a shifter cable or something in that time, so you end up with about $300 in your pocket you didn’t have, along with a big smile.
You’ll then end up with around $1800/year for the useful life of the bike.
This is an insanely good deal.
I’m in Spain. I mostly ride a 125 motorbike that gets 2.1l/100km and cost less than your cargo bike … last week I covered 2000km on it.
Why the fuck would you get a electric bike then? You can get a good 2nd hand commuter and probably a acoustic cargo bike for less than that.
Recommending ebikes as “budget option” is like suggesting heroin for weight loss. Insanely stupid, even if it just works in paper
People get them because the modestly higher speeds make it possible to pull off the trips they’re trying to do within their time budget. That electric assist roughly doubles the number of people for whom a bike is an option.
Sure, that’s a valid reasons to get ebikes. Just that trying to cut on budget is really not one.
Thing is, it saves money too.
It may save money.
In general, any advice to budgeting questions that start with “buy this” is stupid or malicious.