I recently purchased and installed a kit to make my regular bicycle into an electric bike. It is a lot of fun and as I have thought more about it, I think it makes a lot of economic sense.
First off, I don't want this topic to be about whether it is better to use an ebike or regular pedal bike - I don't think anyone would argue that using a regular bike is both much cheaper and much better for you health-wise.
But there are some folks who don't like to pedal a bike or folks who have a longish commute and don't want to pedal for that long or folks who want the option not to have to pedal if it is 100 degrees outside, but still love to be on a bike feeling the wind in their hair.
I came to want an electric bike because I live in a hilly, rural area and over the years, I have found it hard to summon the incentive to bike 15-30 miles round trip to run an errand or pay a friend a visit. I know I should do it, but it just wasn't happening, and I found myself either using the car or not doing it at all because I didn't feel like getting into my car. I did a fair amount of biking still, but mostly shorter trips for fun/excersize.
I wanted to have the ability to get further afield, without having to get into my car. I love biking, and would way rather be outside, on a silent vehicle, feeling the wind in my hair than I would sitting in a car - even if it took twice as long to get somewhere. And I loved the idea that I could always pedal as much as I like whenever I like and get as much excersize as I want.
So I purchased a $2000 electric bike kit. This is a pretty high-end kit and it allows me to go up to 30mph just with the motor alone and has a range of around 40-45 miles on battery power alone. The battery itself was around $1100. Most folks could do with a lot less battery - especially in urban or suburban environment.
Still - even with this expensive kit, the economics work out pretty good. A few assumptions:
- I am going to keep my car and keep my insurance no matter how much I ebike. If this wasn't the case, and I could get rid of the car/registration/insurance, the payback would be much much quicker.
- My car gets around 30mpg and hardly depreciates at this point, so my running costs are pretty low compared to the average folks - I am estimating it costs me around $.20/mile to run this car (fuel alone is $.12/mile) when I figure in oil changes, tire changes, and avg of $500/repairs/maint per 10000 miles driven.
- My kWh costs are around $.12/kWh. To charge my battery fully, after accounting for losses in charging process, it takes around $.20. So my electricity cost per mile is around $.005/mile - one-half cent per mile. The only maintenance items I anticipate are tires - I estimate I will go through $100 in tires in 10K miles.
So - to "pay back" my $2000 investment:
- every mile I bike and don't drive, I am saving $.195/mile. I divide my initial cost of $2000/.195 and I get 10,256 miles until I break even. Add in the bike tire costs, and I need to go 10,769 miles until I break even.
- and after breaking even, I should have at least another 25K miles on my battery before that needs to be replaced. 25K miles x .195 = $4800 saved
So it isn't going to make you super rich, but that seems pretty good for me. And the most important thing is that is gets me out of the car and onto my bike - out in the world, riding a silent vehicle, no parking issues, no traffic issues, able to take prettier/less busy/less dangerous routes because the extra distance is no big deal. And I can pedal as much or as little as I want.
I am glad I bought it, but I think if I was living in city/suburbia and had a 7-10 miles commute to work, that would be the best use of electric bike....
