Only getting 1 year out of an e-bike is not encouraging. When we start talking several hundred dollars depreciation per year and blowing out on hills, beater cars start to look comparable in cost and reliability.
I wonder if the battery/motor were overheating hauling 2 people uphill, and that's what shortened their lives?
I got a year or of it, but I was the 3rd owner. There was about 2500 miles on the odometer, but I imagine actual mileage could be higher than what it displayed.
Depreciation and longevity are definitely big factors here. A vehicle that wears out at 2500 miles will only last a 10-mile daily commuter about a year. Even if it's 2 or 3 years, that's still a lot of depreciation for a vehicle that might cost a couple grand. An old subcompact car with maybe 10k miles left in it depreciates slower than that (albeit with offsetting higher maintenance, insurance, and fuel costs).
I wonder if anyone has studied the relative cost of various options at the low end of the transportation options. For example, with made-up numbers:
VEHICLE DEPRECIATION 2500 MILES FUEL+MAINTENANCE EST LONGEVITYnice pedal bike $500 $40 15y
e-bike, cheap $1000 $75 3y
e-bike, nice $1000 $85 5y
50cc scooter, cheap $500 $300 4y
50cc scooter, nice $700 $250 10y
beater car $800 $1000 3y
Of course, at this low level of transportation spending, incidental items such as blown motors or flat tires would introduce so much variance that a decision based on those estimates might not be so helpful, especially for the beater car. For it, a couple of tow bills or a particular mechanical problem would blow all the estimates out of the water.
